Repair-It

No, not one of my cars. My neighbor texted me that her Scion tC wouldn't start. Actually she asked if I had a booster pack (I don't, just a trickle charger, which would take days, or at least hours to crank well enough).

I looked in the basement for the other half of that 4ga 20' jumper cable set I bought at Walmart for my inverter adventures. Couldn't find it. So I grabbed my old shitty jumper cables. Naturally, the Caprice started, and I drove it next door. We doubled up our jumper cables (I tried that trick once before on a VERY dead battery and it worked great, without all the hot cable/slow crank drama you usually see). No problem. I drove back to my house, backed it in and shut it off. Faithful is a good word.

The caprice is a fine automobile. And an inexpensive option, to be sure.

All that said, I'm pretty sure you want this:
http://www.alten-dc.com/gasoline-powere ... arger.html

660 watts? Nah, what I really want is this Honda 1600W continuous inverter generator: http://powerequipment.honda.com/generat ... ls/eu2000i

That would provide the same power output as my inverter (actually an additional 100W) and unlike my Caprice, it will run up to 9.6 hours on a gallon of gas @ 25% load (400W) (engine speed varies based on load). 4 hours at full output. 1 gallon tank. The MSRP is $1,150 which sounds like a lot but if I bought a generator I think I'd splurge for one of these babies. I found it on sale for $1000 without trying very hard.

You want quiet? 59dBA at full load. Nothing can touch that, other than my Caprice idling.

The other KEY feature is pure sine wave power. Now that's starting to look pretty compelling for $1000.

For twice the price you can have this: http://powerequipment.honda.com/generat ... s/eu3000is

2600W, electric start. Big 3.4 gallons tank. Runs 20 hours @ 25% load (700W) or 7.2 hours at full output. Now we're talking. Found it on sale for an even $2,000. This model is actually 1dBA quieter than the EU2000i. I desire this model.

http://powerequipment.honda.com/generat ... generators

Yep, a quick search on ebay yeilds many of these in the $800 range.. Some that may go for even less.

It also shows this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HONDA-EU2000i-G ... 1598wt_777

Which give you plenty of extra fuel storage and might be nice for extended outages.

Might be nice to have a powered siphon pump for draining fuel out of your (many) vehicles during a long power outage as well.

Have to say, if I were to buy a generator, this would be very tempting as well.

I want this whole setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDidwmfSrsw

Only $3400! Supports a remote start control, as well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honda-EU6500is- ... 35e1faa0a2

Fun fact:

You can connect 2 of the EU20001s together to double the wattage. There is a connector cable that you can get to connect them.

I have some experience with this generator, and it is absolutely amazing. Uses almost no fuel, and was so quiet, I had to go outside to make sure it was still running.
It is light enough to carry with one hand. I ran this for something like 48 hours and used less than 5 gallons of gas!

It ran a fan, pellet stove, refrigerator, cellphones, and a couple lights, no problem.