You don’t need to power everything in an emergency.
But if you get your heating and cooking with electricity and you’re in an environment that NEEDS cooling…
I use 10kwh/day average. But that includes power-hungry “steam” washer/dryer and dishwasher, none of which I need for a few days outage.
I’m lucky to have gas water heater and gas steam boiler. The boiler needs about 10 watts on standby and max 25 operating (ecobee, damper, auto-fill, etc.)
I’ve already rigged it with a cord and if there’s an emergency I put it on a little 300W/400 WH Jackery over night (will run it for close to a day) so I don’t have to run a generator. I plan on rigging up some kind of UPS with a few days capacity though.
I just bought a 1000W/1kWh gently-used Jackery for $450 from a neighbor who upgraded to a 2000Plus. That’ll run the fridge over night.
The Jackeries have great general utility and are both very portable.
Just got a 3000W 120V portable generator and that’s all I need for everything else. Stove top is gas, takes a match or lighter. Oven is electric I don’t need to bake cookies during an outage. Air fryer, toaster, microwave are fine on the generator, one at a time.
I’d eventually like one of those expandable battery systems with a 10 circuit automatic switch and load-shift during peak hours. The prices are coming down rapidly. Ecoflow looks good but plenty of competition coming.
You don’t need to power everything in an emergency.
But if you get your heating and cooking with electricity and you’re in an environment that NEEDS cooling…
I use 10kwh/day average. But that includes power-hungry “steam” washer/dryer and dishwasher, none of which I need for a few days outage.
I’m lucky to have gas water heater and gas steam boiler. The boiler needs about 10 watts on standby and max 25 operating (ecobee, damper, auto-fill, etc.)
I’ve already rigged it with a cord and if there’s an emergency I put it on a little 300W/400 WH Jackery over night (will run it for close to a day) so I don’t have to run a generator. I plan on rigging up some kind of UPS with a few days capacity though.
I just bought a 1000W/1kWh gently-used Jackery for $450 from a neighbor who upgraded to a 2000Plus. That’ll run the fridge over night.
The Jackeries have great general utility and are both very portable.
Just got a 3000W 120V portable generator and that’s all I need for everything else. Stove top is gas, takes a match or lighter. Oven is electric I don’t need to bake cookies during an outage. Air fryer, toaster, microwave are fine on the generator, one at a time.
I’d eventually like one of those expandable battery systems with a 10 circuit automatic switch and load-shift during peak hours. The prices are coming down rapidly. Ecoflow looks good but plenty of competition coming.