Mini Refrigerator or plug-in Cooler for power outages?

[bigpaul]

a mini fridge isn't going to hold much is it? probably a waste of effort, time and money. learn to live without in a crisis.

[Live-life]

So we got that Coleman electric cooler and ran it during hurricane Sandy and other outages. It's a really cold little cooler but has no thermostat and fan runs constantly BUT draws little on battery. So we put essential items in there and shifted food from refrigerator to freezer overnight and then run outside generator during the day to run refrigerator. Had little to no food spoilage with this strategy.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by MissingAll4Seasons

PTO generators are great things to have, with the right set up you can use the engine to drive all sorts of mechanical stuff not just make juice for electric power and equipment.

I rigged up a 3-point skid that holds both a welder/generator and an air compressor. The tractor will run both at once if I need them. Old gas welders with a blown motor are easy to find. I found another trailer mounted rig that probably dates from the Korean War that outputs 90v DC, which will run a universal motor (brushes) with the same power as 120v AC.

[jamies]

We have a trailer mounted generator at our gun club. I'm going to be the first person there if TSHTF. Also I'm going to liberate the cannon! Cause you never know when a cannon might come in handy in the apocalypse.

I'v helped build a couple of cold plate systems on boats. Key was insulation. We did one with about 6-8 inches of insulation all around, using top entry hatches (keeps cold in better). It ran off the engine or generator and took a couple hours to freeze up. Then if you limited opening the hatch to a few times a day it would keep things cold for about two days - in Florida.

I've long thought of building something similar into a house. It could power off solar pretty easily I think.