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What do you suggest for battery backup power?
I'd not want to recommend any because of where they are made... the 4Patriots includes a lot of stuff that you may not ever use. There's a fellow on YouTube who has done a lot of testing... The trouble with these are that they can't power things that suck a lot of juice for very long. Anything that heats up or cools off sucks power up fast.
The name brands seem to test out pretty good according to the YouTube fellow.
These people sell this stuff because they push fear. MAD MAX IS COMING HOW WILL YOU SURVIVE?? Then they tell you they have the only solution. A bunch of batteries with a 100 watt solar panel. They sell you a 1 DAY solution for a few appliances, then you need all day of sun to recharge the batteries. For a one day solution, if you absolutely must have power, then get a small generator, and plug in a few appliances. If you've ever gone camping, then you can easily get by for longer. Keep the fridge/freezer closed and food will last days.
Only problem with a generator is they need fuel to run ,either petrol or gas so if supply is a problem then you’re still going to be without power. I’m on a stand alone solar power system entirely off grid. It is a fairly big system though and does run two households. A small solar setup is probably the way to go with a genset backup.
My last house, which was in a rural area, we had a 250 gal propane tank, and a 10K gal water tank. With a dual fuel generator we could hunker down for many months. The back up water pump was a 12v unit which could run for days on a 12v deep cycle battery. A small solar panel would keep it charged. When we had power outages, which were frequent due to SoCal Edison shutting of the power when the wind would blow, we would run the generator for short times so the freezer and refrigerator would cool down again. If a person got a few manageable propane tanks, say 20 gal size, and a dual fuel generator, they could site tight for weeks if they were judicious in its use.
Yeah some people do find these small solar and batteries useful for small cabins where they just need to run lights and sometimes a small fridge while any heat comes from a wood stove.
Not if one has a dual fuel option for generator. Mine does gas and propane, and has an electric and pull start.