Another look at backup power

[Twinfin II]

Old thread, but I've been interested in this for a while.
I'm much more small scale at the moment, eventually I'll upgrade my electrical panel so it can take it power from an EV or solar.

I like the idea of a whole house gas generator to keep the fridge/freezers running but don't want to mess around with less capable gens because of dumb CA regs. And there may be supply disruptions in getting gas in an emergency.

Use the EV as emergency power source, maybe an ebike (or regular bike) to get around until power is restored.
Don't have EV or rooftop solar currently, no immediate plans to get those so much more small scale at the moment.

Recently I got an Anker SOLIX C1000 (~$550) and C300 DC Portable (~$150) Power Stations to charge cell phones, laptops, ham radios, drones in an emergency.
We had an old 100W surplus solar panel lying around that I put compatible plugs on so I can charge the power stations.
Would be nice to have a camping fridge/freezer that works off 12v or multi power but those are expensive ($500+?) and not an immediate necessity.

When you add up the cost of replacing an entire freezer/refrigerator full of food that was lost due to an extended power outage, the cost of even a modest gas generator of battery based backup power can make financial sense.

Once you decide to get into a backup power system, it’s only a matter of deciding how much convenience you want and how much you want to spend.

There are a lot more options out there now than there ever used to be.

 

[Offgrid]

As a long time solar contractor at ranch we use simple inverters with lead acid batteries and have 2 stand by propane Kenseth.
works for us.

 

[OlderThanDirt]

I use a hybrid approach of solar generators, solar panels, batteries and generators. I rarely use the generators, but have both a Honda EU2000 and a larger Firman trifuel generator. The house has segregated units with about 35 kWh of storage. I segregated the inverters and battery units because one powers two ponds, which in a real SHTF situation would be rerouted to the house circuit. During a recent planned outage everything worked according to plan, but I did get some strange looks from neighbors that could hear the pond waterfalls running, but with no generator noise.

 

[Wolkenflieger]

I just got some quotes for a Tesla Gen-3 Power Wall to supplement our solar array. It's expensive but I only need one Power Wall for critical power such as my work computer and refrigeration. Being able to store power for use at night is handy during nominal operation.

I like that Power Wall is silent and switches in milliseconds in the event of an outage, meaning no file loss if I'm working on the computer.

 

[-D.M.-]

So today's short outage let me test out whether my genny would run the whole house plus the AC. As a precaution, I turned off the AC breaker, let the forced air unit come on, then flipped the AC breaker. Well, it went very, very well. Full house powered and the AC running.

Very happy camper with that around $550 firman tri-fuel purchase.

 

[NATEWA]

So today's short outage let me test out whether my genny would run the whole house plus the AC. As a precaution, I turned off the AC breaker, let the forced air unit come on, then flipped the AC breaker. Well, it went very, very well. Full house powered and the AC running.

Very happy camper with that around $550 firman tri-fuel purchase.

That’s great!

My plan if the power ever goes out, I can’t run the a/c using my generator and power is out for more than 24 hours is to run my whole house fan early in the morning.

 

[GlockRocksSig]

For the occasional power outage, I use a 1000watt gas generator to power my refrigerator and chest freezer, it's not so noisy and runs all day. I also have several LiPo battery backups (home made) to power microwave, lights and router for wifi. Gas stove gets the cooking done so no need to cook outside on the BBQ grill.