Emergency Power After a Storm

Last year we had an ice storm come through. Our whole area was without power. I thought I was prepared for such an event and soon found out otherwise. We did find having an inverter was very helpful.

In this instructable I will show you how to hook your inverter to your car battery. This worked great for providing us lights, running a small heater, and our refrigerator. We did not run the refrigerator and heater at the same time.

I am not an electrician or a mechanic. Use advice at your own risk. This worked for me and made things more comfortable in my house but your results may vary.

For this instructable you will need a car with a working battery and an inverter. We used a Chevy Malibu and a Bestek 2000w inverter.

Connect the inverter cables to the inverter. Unscrew the red knob and connect the red cable. Replace the knob tightly. Repeat with black cable.

Place the inverter in a safe place close enough to the terminals of the car battery. Be aware of, and avoid, any parts of your car that moves or can heat up.

Without touching any metal take the red inverter cable and connect to the red positive terminal of the battery. Connect the black inverter cable to the black negative terminal of the battery.

Start car and turn power on to the inverter.

Plug in a lead chord to the inverter and run in to home. We had to plug in another chord to get to the basement.

Run your devices as usual but keep the watts low. Here we have our small space heater cracked up all the way and a lamp.