Making my own portable AC power supply

[dicion]

Russel,

Thats fine, and will likely work for you, just remember though, that Car batteries are not made to be fully discharged. They are designed to pretty much always remain topped off, and are made for outputting a large amount of amperage, in a short period of time, to turn the starter. Also, they are flooded batteries, never meant to be turned on their side or upside down. Keep this in mind, and you should be fine. I wouldn't take one below 50% charge, or else your plates may start to oxidise, reducing the life of the battery.

[FlynJay]

As long as we are talking about generator efficiency and other "emergency" electrical power issues...I want to see what the experts recommendations would be for "our" situation...

After Hurricane Ike, we learned a lesson...18 days without power really stinks...So...

My wife and I are not too picky...We cold have toughed it out the entire time, but it was beginning to wear on us after the first week...

We also do not anticipate running a lot of "things" on whatever power supply we finally get...Here's the short list...

2 fans, at night, to keep the air moving in our bedroom...

1 surge protector/power strip to keep our cell phones charged up (overnight)

And on that power strip, I would still like to be able to run the laptop on power and to keep the batteries on this thing peaked...

As far as house appliances, I do not believe we will ever want to run the fridge (because we cook most everything as quickly as possible, and throw the rest away) I know that sounds bad, but it gives us the chance to clear out "stuff"... And we'll wash at a laundrymat...

So considering we do not have a great personal need for a lot of power, any recommendation for something that is big enough to bother with, easy to secure to keep it from walking away, and one that maybe on an occasion power a circular saw and power drill, along with the nightly power needs mentioned above...

We want to get something that is rugged, can be rolled on its own base, be fairly quiet...We'd get it...There are just so many out there I'd probably get something stupid...

When I saw the absolute waste of gas and what the nieghbors spent and powered 24/7/365 during that crisis, I kinda thought it would be smarter to not go that route...

So thats our story, and we're sticking to it...

BTW, the generator a co-worker did let us borrow for the next week and a half was a 2500W output (it had a higher cranking amp output, but I forgot those numbers) 7-8 gallon tank unit...It worked great for being a new unit, and he said we needed it worse than he did...I think that unit was too much, but it seemed to work well for us, and had room to spare for other things...

If there is a high quality unit out ther that meets these requirements in the $400-$600 range...We'll stand by for recommendations...

Much appreciated...

You should really look into the honda line of generators. The 2000W version is very quiet, portable enough to not need wheels, and will meet all your needs perfectly. A friend of mine has one and he brings it for campouts and also on his boat (27' cruizer) to run the microwave. It burns about a gallon of gas for an 8 hour period if run continously.

For hurricane power I see the main need as being running the freezer; During IKE I had a generator powering the freezer for about 1 hr every 4-5 hours, and I was the only one in the neighborhood that had meat after a week without power.

[aaronlalonde]

at first i thought we were discussing a/c as well. I was thinking if I get hot while I am camping ill reach over to the control panel and fire up the onan. Some motor coaches have thermostats that do that automagically so you dont even have to roll over!