4 ms·
A standard residential generator typically holds a gallon of fuel and will burn through that in about 8-12 hours, which is not the ideal way to run a refrigerat
by banannaise 4y ago
A standard residential generator typically holds a gallon of fuel and will burn through that in about 8-12 hours, which is not the ideal way to run a refrigerator. If you run the generator constantly, you'll burn through substantial amounts of fuel, and if you run it only occasionally, you're going to get the kind of temperature fluctuations we're trying to avoid here.
I have a 1kW power station with solar charging, which won't fare a whole lot better; it'll run a fridge for maybe 2-3 days if it's sunny outside.
Low-tech solutions win in power outages of more than a day or two.
- hunterb123 4y agoMy generator holds 2.5 gallons and runs a bit over 24 hours, so that's about right, but I generally have a 15 gallon tank in the shed. That generator can power the A/C, fridge, everything, without having to open it and let cold air out and transfer items. Power outages typically aren't more than one day, and dry ice is not going to help you for those outages. I don't have any dry ice suppliers nearby (no the Walmart doesn't stock it), it's not a low-tech solution. The low tech solution would be a bigger gas canister. 2 gallons a day is not bad at all. In an apartment building or something I can certain see the use case for dry ice though.