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Mechanics will tell you that extended idling of a vehicle engine is harmful:  Unless the engine has been equipped with roller cams, which most off-the-rack engines do not have, it produce excessive wear.

Good advice: we live in the Pacific Northwest where the roots of tall trees get loose after endless days of rain and any brisk breeze will tip them over on your power lines, and everyone else's, so power can be out a few days to a week.  We have a home-built camper van in the driveway with enough aux battery power to run our gas fireplace blower, and sufficient solar to recharge during the day enough to conserve gasoline.  We've also run the camper 'fridge two days without recharging the main camper battery.  I've picked up a couple more batteries and am working on a portable unit with inverter that can run the refigerator in the house enough to keep the freezer from thawing.  Probably not enough, but we cook with gas and use up most of the cold stores in a prolonged outage.  Keeping frozen water jugs was a good tip.

The man is doing God's work! ... Respect!

I remember pulling into a deep jungle on the big island of Hawaii. There was a house filled with cute hippies who ran out in excitement , whooping and chattering with joy at the appearance of our rental car. I quickly learned why they were so pleased when one of them popped our hood and hooked two wire connections onto our battery. They asked if we minded , we said no , and we ran the engine. The house lit up instantly and music flowed from somewhere. That was hippie technology.

Two batteries in parallel can last a lot longer than twice the run-time as a single battery.

Absolutely correct!!!! If you have 220V stove, dryer , you can cook on your barbecue grill,and dry your clothes with a clothesline!!! If you don't have barbecue grill go to a local  park and use one there !!!!!

I paid an electrician $175 last year to put a 50-amp transfer switch in.  I paid $800.00 (about 7 years ago) for a (9,200 continuous watt gas generator).  I run every 120 circuit in the panel, plus the water heater.  I could run the stove if I cut the water heater circuit off.   Much better than extensions cords all over the house, pulling refrigerators in out to plug/unplug them, etc.  I keep the generator full of ethanal-free gas, and fire it up once a month for about 2 minutes.  I also stock up 20 more gallons before hurricane season.

I have set-up my work van on a 5,000 watt inverter so that I can run a wire feed welder and other miscellaneous equipment. I tapped straight to the fuse box and used an isolater to separate the vehicle battery and the deepcell for the inverter. The alternator in the van would recharge the deepcell batteries while going about my day. The welding was not the major part of my work however, my primary work was locksmithing.

We have a Mango Power battery backup in our house. It consists of two 100 pound batteries and a transfer switch. It is being charged by the grid. It only powers about 8 circuits in our house. The main ones. Refrigerator a few lights and wall circuits and our furnace fan. We have propane for heat. I don't have any solar panels but that is one way I can recharge them if I invest in them. I can also recharge them with a generator. Without recharging I can keep those circuits powered about two days. I wonder if the sine wave inverter you mentioned in this video would charge them in an electric outage?

I already overcame most of those needs. I only rely on my phone to get news and entertainment. I sleep in winter with a heavy blanket. I have a battery fan for the 110° heat in summer. I eat mostly canned food

This is such a clever take, never thought about using my car like that. The practicality of it just clicked for me. Thanks for breaking it down!

I have a deep cycle (trolling motor) battery already in my boat. Thanks for these tips!

3 days in central Texas, worst ice storm ever.  Now have two 5000 watt generators.

I started such a project last year but never finished, cable, breaker for the battery power, 1K inverter (a little to small).  setting in the garage.  I'm a dumby.  Lake Station, Indiana.  11 days and still on generator. 08-22-2026

I tried hooking an inverter to my Chrysler vehicle and even had it checked by a mechanic and an electrician to insure it was installed correctly. I stared my vehicle and it blew out my computer because the computer was also the voltage regulator for the charging system. I know the battery should be a buffer for the system but I tried it on my second Chrysler and it did the same thing. I had to replace both computers.

either that or you can just buy a generator....right bucket... your words,,,

Go big or go home. I am now in the upstate of SC. I run a 1200 watt solar array connected to a 8 battery LifePo system, series and paralleled for a 24 volt system.  8 1280 12.8 batteries. Constantly charged going into a Giandel 7000 what/ 4000 inverter. Have been running half my house of it foe six months. 12 Volt buck for the Han, GMRS and CB radios for comms.

What about newer vehicles that will only idle for 20 minutes?

What an interesting presentation! I've been researching generators, solar generators, and solar panels. I'm not to excited with any of them. I do own a small 100w inverter for small tools but never thought about a bigger one for home use. I guess I didn't think a car had enough power to do that. So know my worries are over, thanks to your presentation! I have a propane heater, so I'll only need power for the refrigerator, lights, TV, and cell phone!
Thanks for your informative video!