Want to get a little something extra out of every day? Sign up for my Living (and loving) Life newsletter.
Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Did you know there’s an easy way to use your car or pickup truck as a generator when your local power grid goes down?
My brother used this method to keep his refrigerator, freezer, TV and a few lights powered on for days at a time up during power outages. It works extremely well and it’s very simple to set up.
In a nutshell, all you need to do is connect a 12VDC to 120VAC power inverter to your car’s battery and then run a regular extension cord from the inverter to whatever thing(s) you need to keep running inside your house. Keep your car running to prevent the battery from dying and you’ll have power for as long as you need it.
There are a couple of caveats to be aware of here:
1 – You’ll need to make sure your car has enough gasoline in its tank to keep the engine running as long as you need the inverter to supply power to your home.
2 – The total wattage of the appliances and gadgets you’re powering should not exceed 1,000 watts. I know the guy in the video below mentions using inverters rated at up to 3,000 watts, but I recommend keeping your usage limited to 1,000 watts or less unless you know for a fact that your vehicle’s alternator is capable of supplying more. 1,000 watts or less should be completely safe regardless of the type of vehicle you have.
The inverter recommended by the guy in the video is a Renogy brand inverter, and that’s a really good inverter if you want to go with that one. But I’ve been using this one for quite some time and it works just as well and it only costs about half as much as the Renogy.
As I mentioned above, this is a great way to provide your essential appliances and gadgets with 120V of clean AC power while your local power grid is offline.
To finish up, here’s the excellent short video I mentioned earlier. Check it out to see just how simple and easy it is to turn your car or truck into a temporary source of AC power.