Hey Utah, You Already Have a Backup Generator Sitting Right Under Your Nose

There are some great options for backup power to run your fridge should there be a long-term outage. A generator or a power station is great to have on hand. One option sitting in your garage may be overlooked but can be used to generate electricity. 

Tapping the Energy Potential in Your Car 

Your vehicle is capable of producing electricity, and it won’t cost too much to tap into that potential. When your car is running, the alternator is charging the battery. This electricity could run your fridge if you could convert it to the right AC current. 

Luckily, the technology to do make this happen has been around for a while. It is an inverter. This device that is available at most stores with an automotive section can change DC or direct current into alternating current to run an appliance. 

Here’s What You Need to Run an Appliance from Your Car 

You will need at least a 1000W inverter to keep your food cold in a power outage. This will cost you anywhere from $100 to $200 and may require adding some clips to attach to the terminal on your vehicle’s battery. 

Most come with a couple of plugs just like you see on your wall where you can plug in an extension cord. Run that to your fridge and you are ready to go. You only have to run the car periodically to keep the battery charged. 

Bonus genius idea, my son who went through the Hurricane in South Carolina last year put his meat thermometer into the fridge. When the temp got up to 50 degrees, he would run the generator. 

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In this way he was able to make his gas last a lot longer and even though the power was off for a week, he still kept his food cold.