Batteries are Cheap, Backup power is expensive

@erik_squires I like the idea of the generac, being all electric at our place as well. I don't have one either and we live in tornado alley of MO, not the worst part of MO but NE MO. I'd like to have the generac but it is expensive. I think they do offer some kind of payment plans though, just haven't looked into it. We've lived here for the last 12 years and have only lost power for a few hours, once. Another time or two, off for less than an hour. Not bad considering all the above ground power lines and trees. Seems like a recipe for disaster. We also get a lot of ice storms but have yet to lose power in one. 

Anyway, I hope you find the solution to your problem. It's not a simple or inexpensive one. Seems like you can solve the short term one easily enough but the long term one gets trickier. There are a lot of smallish gas and diesel powered generators that might serve you there. Might be cheaper than modding your SUV, not sure. Good luck. Post what you find. 

I do like the solar solutions but they are not cheap and the same lag time would apply.

@billpete 

Oh, me too! 

We have at least 2 significant power events / month here and that’s in good weather!  By that I mean the power goes out long enough to reset the microwave clock.  

We’re also subject to yearly events of fiber cables being cut which take out almost all our cell and Internet providers at the same time.  I just can’t have enough back up systems! 

Solar power comes in various flavors.  Depends how they are used.  Some use them as strictly back up power, to charge batteries until things go out, and others use the Solar power continuously during the day, no lag.  

Erik 

Eco flow has one on sale for > 50% off ($2K now) that looks like it may take care of your whole home.

The battery and transfer switch.

https://us.ecoflow.com/products/delta-pro-transfer-switch?variant=54491796635721

DeKay

@erik_squires 

You're right, there are a lot of ways to utilize solar and I don't understand half of them. There are a few places around who bought into it to run their whole house. I'm not sure it's the way to go here in MO just yet. It costs a lot to set up. I'd never live long enough to get it back. My wife has a cousin in TX who says he got his money back in 5 years or so. I don't think that would happen here. I was talking with a friend who got his going and it didn't sound good to me at all. It did not provide enough to run his A/C in summer and when he produced more than he needed, the electric COOP paid him about 10 cents on the dollar for what they bought back. I don't think he saved any money at all by doing it. I think he lost money. The numbers were not good.

My wife is always saying we should go solar or even wind. Either proposition is outrageously expensive. We have a pretty good sized house, all electric. I can burn wood but I found it to be a lot more work than it was worth. I might have saved $200 a year on the electric bill. In the big picture, that is not enough to warrant all the work or the mess created by the wood. When we first moved here, I added a wood furnace, cost over 4k by the time I had it installed. It accomplished nothing, was poorly installed and could not keep up with our duct work. I would have had to have a whole separate system of duct work installed. I sold it after a couple winters and lost over 2k. Only benefit was getting in better shape at 60 years old cutting a lot of firewood and hand splitting it all with an axe. A lot of work and I did manage to tear my rotator cuff in the process. So much for getting in shape. :)

I'm afraid we'll be stuck with terrible electric bills for the duration. We considered downsizing to a smaller home but I decided that I'm too dang old to do that again. Decided to make the best of what we have here. Things could be worse I suppose. Hope you find what you need. 

@billpete  - Yeah the economics keep changing.  Costs of power generation have dropped  a great deal recently, making selling power a bad idea, but now with climate change and AI's demand for power it may make home power generation more worthwhile.