Today's product review will focus on power outages, and what to do about them.
When we moved here about four and a half years ago (in mid-December of 2020), we quickly learned the electrical grid in this area is very fragile. Anything seems to knock out power: a wind, a snowfall, a Tuesday. To that end, and because we were concerned about keeping me available for my online job, we needed a dependable backup to run my laptop in the event the power went out on a workday.
Enter a backup power source called AllPowers:
This gizmo is the size of a car battery and provides 600 watts and almost 300 watt-hours. It will power my laptop for, I kid you not, about four days of continuous use. (Trust me on this.)
Indirectly, it also charged our wireless hotspot backup, which was plugged into the laptop during my workdays.
This battery powers more than my laptop, of course. It will power anything you plug into it (personal electronics, LED lights, etc.). When using it for my laptop, I have not had anything else plugged into it since I wanted to make sure I had sufficient dedicated power for my computer. However the manufacturers say the battery can charge up to eight things at once. The unit has the advantage of being portable and relatively lightweight at about 13 pounds. We keep it fully charged at all times.
The exact model we purchased is no longer available, but a comparable unit by the same company has the same (or better) specs. Highly recommended if you depend on your computer for employment and live in areas prone to power outages.
Buoyed by the success of this battery backup, we went up a step and got a larger version, a VTOMAN. This unit provides 1500 watts and 828 watt-hours. It weighs about 31 lbs. and can be charged a number of different ways (electricity, solar, car charger, etc.). It's large enough to power bigger appliances, such as a refrigerator or chest freezer, for a limited period of time. (Keep in mind a fridge or freezer can keep food suitably cold/frozen, if the doors aren't opened, on as little as an hour of electricity a day if need be.)
The advantage of this unit is its portability. It's not something you want to sling in your backpack and take hiking, of course, but Don and I took it with us on our second honeymoon trip as an emergency source of power without an issue. Highly recommended.
And finally, we bought yet another battery backup, a spectacular purchase called a Bluetti. This workhorse is much heavier (about 70 lbs.), but it's a giant when it comes to running household appliances during outages.
Again, the exact model we have has been upgraded to a newer type, one that offers a 2400-watt output and over 2000 watt-hours of use.
This Bluetti has saved our fanny any number of times. Last year, during a particularly bad series of storms with a resulting multi-day power outage, we used it to keep our fridge and chest freezer cold.
We also took the opportunity to recharge it using our generator; not because it needed recharging, but because we wanted to test whether charging it with the generator would work. (It did.)
There are multiple types of battery backups on the market, but these are the ones we've used (a lot!) and can attest to their quality and usefulness.
(Obligatory disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, I earn a small commission.)
Happy charging!
Good choices, all of them. It makes good sense to have differents sizes and capabilities for times when you are either on the go or staying put.
ReplyDeleteFor staying put, I have a smallish generator, the exact same Bluetti (AC200Max), plus 2 Bluetti B300K batteries. Very handy in power outages. Plus enough fold up solar panels to refresh them if need be.
For trips, I settled on the Bluetti AC2A. It's a good combination of portability and power. As a member of a HAM emergency response group, I could be deployed up to 3 days remotely, and the AC2A gives me a lot of reassurance.
Just curious as to why you don’t have a portable whole house type set up? I see you have a generator but for the cost of those three items one could buy a new generator and have the electric work done professionally by an electrician. I get the portability of the units, just curious as to why not have a set up for the house itself. I run everything that matters (heat, well pump, fridge, separate freezer, and most of the lights upstairs) in our average sized raised ranch on a portable generator and trans gen switch. Storing gas is a pain but if I were to do it again I would put in a propane tank just for the generator like they do on whole house Generac type units. Again, not judging, they seem like great units, just curious.
ReplyDeleteJust my 10 cents worth (Inflation ya know).
ReplyDeleteWhen the power goes out, y’all think it won’t? I have some Beach Front land for sale in Arizona, everyone and their brother will be looking for some way to save that freezer full of food, that WILL defrost and rot withing a week or whatever else you NEED power for. AND will be running that Genny most of the day not thinking long term, ask those people in Carolina how that’s working out. And like every year when the Hurricanes hit hundreds if not thousands of unprepared people go on a Generator Hunting buying spree trying to get their hands on the very last one. Most have NEVER run a Generator and have NO clue what it takes, plus the noise so everyone in the neighborhood knows you have Power.
What system do you have? A Gas Generator that will suck down .5 to 1 gallon of Gas an hour, most freezers need to run a minimum of 5 hours a day to just stay frozen…. Do your own math for that Propane Gen-Set. BTW that’s 5 gallons of fuel per day minimum. Where you going to find more gas when there is no power to run the pumps at the Gas Station and there are 5000 people waiting in line for Fuel. Power out for 2 weeks…. 14 days at 5 gallons a day, you got 70 gallons of fuel stored up, SAFELY!!!! and not gone bad because of age?
How about a nice Solar Gen-Set, good stuff in my limited mindset. Yeah Yeah Yeah, what if the Sun’s not shining? I got it, but most of the newer sets will charge even with limited sun shining, do the research. And no, I’m not advocating buying a Whole House Solar system, waste of money, but if you’re serious about things, do the calculations of what you would absolutely need in an emergency, power wise.
Lastly, do a little math, figure out how much in dollars you have stored in that Freezer (replacement cost of beef/food is what??) than figure the cost of a nice Generator (Solar, Propane, Gas, Diesel) is it worth it?
Look for sales on a Gen-Set, a cpl of grand is cheap compared to going without power, for How Long?
After extensive reading and cogitating on the subject, we concluded (as it appears have many others) that the best option was a mixture of solar and fuel-powered generators. We don't have the funds to put in a large solar array, so like you we have a few of the solar 'generators' (more accurately solar batteries) and the previous owners of our property installed a whole-house Generac and a 1,000 gallon propane tank. We also have a smaller gas-powered generator and about 30 gallons of stored and treated ethanol-free gasoline.
ReplyDeleteWe love that the Generac comes on automatically (and we don't have to go out in highly inclement weather to hook it up and turn it on) when needed now. We also know we will need to husband our propane in a genuine widespread grid-down situation (primary concern would be the well pump). We don't worry overmuch about the Generac's noise - it's not ideal, but at present we cannot hear it at the beginning of our driveway. We realize that the sound may carry further in different directions or depending on the wind, but we are fairly confident that our location (on large forested hillside acreage at the end of a dead-end dirt road) will contain most of the noise.
We have a variety of solar lighting (recently picked up a few of the lanterns you linked to add to it) and a few smaller solar batteries (for phones/laptops/small electronics). My husband works remotely and thus far has not been much inconvenienced - he does have a hot spot. Only concern is when the phone goes out, because that is fiber optic, not a hard line. If funds ever permit, we've considered some sort of satellite back up (an emergency Starlink or Garmin or satellite phone). Problem with all of those is not just the initial financial outlay, but the monthly subscription costs.
As with most things, a layered defense is best. And the ideal situation is costly. Thus far the Generac has been worth its weight in gold, and has worked flawlessly for the two years we've lived here. Again, as finances permit, we would like to install a more permanent solar power system. But we are fairly confident we won't be left utterly powerless. People also need to learn that anything that produces heat (i.e. microwave, oven, coffee pot, hair or clothes dryer) is a massive drain on solar batteries - which is why we have a gas oven and a wood stove. A chest freezer uses relatively little power (and can be cycled on and off with minimal danger of defrosting food). We worry more about the summer heat than winter cold - the Generac handles the mini-splits fine, but at best we have solar to operate a bedroom portable a/c for a limited time.
Like any other 'disaster preparedness,' power generation has to be planned for.