Why Waste Money on a Gas Generator When Battery Options Abound?

When the power goes out, rather than run a messy gas generator or follow silly advice about dry ice and peanut butter, you can create (or buy) an affordable emergency backup for your fridge and internet.

I could spend the rest of my career debunking bad advice on the Internet related to housing and resilience. I don’t think it’s Russian trolls doling out foolish notions. It’s clueless journalists. Take for example the article from CNET I just read about how to keep your food from going bad in a power outage.

The writer (typically) lists several activities for resilience-free readers facing a power outage, including  putting dry ice in your refrigerator, buying a portable cooler (perhaps this soft sell was the impetus for the article?)and not needing to keep peanut butter, coffee, cooking oil and honey in the fridge. Are people really that ill-informed? I’ve never refrigerated any of that stuff.

How Much Backup Power is Enough?

Once you get past the dumb-splaining, you’ll likely encounter the gas generator marketing machine. They’ll tell you that you need a big gas generator to keep the lights on. In fact, the consumer press will try to talk you into a massive, roaring “whole-house” system that will operate all of your old, wasteful appliances, including your whole house air conditioner, your oven, and your giant smart TV.

Is all that really necessary? Think about what you actually need for power in your home to remain relatively comfortable for a few hours, or at most, a few days? What will allow you to suffer the least financial losses, yet won’t require regular maintenance, storage of gasoline, and an expensive transfer switch built into your electrical system?

In my case the answer is simple: refrigeration and internet access. You’re thinking “What about heating and cooling?!” I’ll address those other two big ticket items as separate needs below. They only become critical if outdoor temperatures are in the extreme (whether hot or cold), so they’re a seasonal problem.

 

If the home refrigerator is an ENERGY STAR model like this Whirlpool Model WRT541SZDB, keeping it on during a power outage with a battery backup is relatively easy.

Power: Focusing on Needs, Not Comforts

I added up the power demands of my HiSense double refrigerator with my Internet cable modem and router. I determined the fridge energy draw by dividing its annual energy use by the number of hours in a year.

Note that although my model is ENERGY STAR certified, other brands and styles require even less energy. This Whirlpool WRT541SZDB, for example, (shown above) has the same amount of storage space but requires just 399 kWh annually. That makes keeping it on during an outage even easier.

Sizing My Emergency System

My HiSense fridge uses about 65.4 watts per hour, based on its annual consumption. My cable modem and router combined use about 25 watts. I rounded up to say the system needs to provide 100 watts.

I found a Marine-grade 12 volt battery (Group Size 27) at Walmart for $69 with 650 “Marine Cranking Amps.” It’s not the battery you’d want for daily power storage (lithium is better performing in many ways), but for the rare times I’ll use it in an outage, it’s a bargain.

The battery did not include an amp hour rating, but type and size battery typically stores about 75 amp hours. 

I checked the wattage of my cable modem and wifi router, 8 watts and 15 watts respectively. That puts my total emergency “load” at about 88 watts. I rounded up to 100 watts. That will allow me to plug in a 7-watt LED lamp if I want, or charge my cellphone.

How Long Will It Last?

Even with my limited, low-end system, I should be able to run my home’s refrigerator and wifi for about 7.5 hours. If I buy two extra batteries, plus a 100-watt solar panel (available at this writing for under $89 at Harbor Freight this week), I could probably charge one battery all day and cycle the fridge on and off in the cooler hours, allowing me to limp along for several days with no grid power necessary.

Keep in mind that I would be starting my backup clock with three batteries fully charged. That automatically buys me about 22.5 hours of emergency power. Then by charging one battery at a time when the sun shines, I’m extending my power range incrementally.

Next, I found a small automobile inverter with 400-watt capacity, for about $52. It includes clamps for quick battery connection, plus two A/C outlets.

So here’s my total cost for the system

• 3 batteries: $207
• Inverter: $52
• Solar panel with controller: $100 approx.
• Other Wires etc. $25
• Taxes (7%) $26.88

Grand Total: $410.88

How Does An Off-the-Shelf Backup Compare?

Turnkey electric power stations have their virtues. The only real drawback is cost. You could pay three to five times what my system cost for the same battery storage capacity, and that price may not include a solar panel for recharging. 

Some of the cool aspects of models like this Geneverse HomePower One station (pictured below) is that you can get a nice digital readout showing current battery capacity, and you can recharge it with a vehicle or hook it direct to solar. It also has several built-in USB ports.

The catch is that the lower priced models offer power storage equivalent to about one of my marine 12 volt batteries: roughly 83 amp hours. So to bring the power capacity in line with my system you would either need a bigger unit or three of these.

Still, I’d put almost any electric battery backup head and shoulders above a gas generator for emergency use. They run almost silently, can be positioned safely indoors, and they generally are lighter and easier to move around than either a gas clunker or a homemade system like mine. Plus they look cool.

Hidden Costs of Gas Generators

Beware the lure of low-cost gas generators. They come with many strings attached. For example, a typical portable gas generator has the following drawbacks and limitations:

Outside operation only. It produces toxic exhaust and can’t be placed in or near living areas. Consumer Reports notes that Carbon Monoxide from a generator can kill you in 5 minutes if trapped in living areas.

Mandatory maintenance. Portable gas generators come with a long list of annual “to –dos,” including running the unit periodically, replacing old gas every few months, changing the oil, cleaning the carburetor, and more.

Fuel and Oil Storage. Gasoline is explosive and unstable. If not used within 3-6 months, it’s considered “bad gas” that can clog up combustion motors. Next, you’ll find that old gas and oil is hard to dispose of.  You may have to pay a fee at your local waste facility. Also, 2-stroke motor oil has a shelf life of 2 to 5 years if unopened, less if opened.

Eco-Irresponsible. Gas generators continue our dependence of fossil fuel technology. They come at a high cost to the environment, despite the fact that better, cleaner technology is available. 

Operating a gas generator in any kind of enclosed space, even a garage or open shed, can be a fatal mistake.