How I'm Going to Get Rich - Part 4

Why in the world do the manufacturers of gas appliances, especially heating systems and ovens, make them so that they cannot be used when the electrical power fails?

We live on Cape Cod and we often lose power because we get a lot of wind and we have a lot of weak trees (it's hard to get a strong tree with deep roots in sand) that like to fall onto power lines and knock them down. And when the power goes out, it can often stay off for a long time because it is difficult to get repair trucks here because they need to cross one of the two bridges that connect us to the mainland. Those bridges can be closed due to the same conditions that caused the power outage in the first place.

So, with no electricity, you can still use the gas stove as long as you have matches to light the burner. But that only works if the control that adjusts the flame height is a mechanical control. I've been seeing some more recent over-engineered stoves that control the gas with an electronic adjustment. That is madness. But with every modern oven, it seems that the thermostat is electronic. So, while you MIGHT be able to start the oven by lighting the burner with a match you then have no way to control the temperature. Why not have an option to use a mechanical adjustment for the temperature? You might not be able to control it precisely but you COULD have a thermometer in the stove that showed the temperature and then you could adjust the gas similar to the stove top. Yes it would be inconvenient but at least you could use it.

Now we come to the gas furnace. Here we have two problems. First, the thermostat is an electric part. But that doesn't have to be run by the power line. It could be battery operated. Even a rechargable battery that is normally powered up by the power line and then when the power goes out, it runs off the battery. They could even be replaceable batteries. But a thermostat is not a high power device. It could run off the battery for a long time.

The second furnace problem is harder to deal with. The water or air must be pumped around the house. But these are normally electric motors and can't run when the power fails. But these are not high powered motors. They could also run on batteries. I don't know exactly how powerful the pumps need to be but we're not talking about huge motors. It could be done.

 There is one shining example of a gas appliance that works during a power outage - a gas fireplace. At least ours does. When the power goes out and we are getting cold, we can light our fireplace's pilot light and then, miracle of miracles, there is an electric switch we can flip to turn on the flame! How do they do that? There is a thing called a thermopile that uses the heat of the flame to create a small electric current to open or close the gas to the fireplace that then lights from the pilot light. A thermopile doesn't create a lot of power but it is enough to control the temperature of an oven or the a furnace. Then the only thing remaining is to pump the hot air or water around the house. Here again, we can use a battery powered motor.

Anyway, when I find time, I'm going to invent them and you will see my name up there with the folks that invented the wheel and fire and all those other important things.