There was a great podcast on www.thesurvivalpodcast.com recently about how to keep your food cold in a power outage.
After you lose power, wrap the fridge in sleeping bags, blankets, etc. to keep it cold. Unwrap once or twice a day to take out the food you will need and then re-wrap.
Get an inverter of about 800-1000 watts. Most new fridges run on less than 750 watts. Use your car battery while idling the engine and an extension cord to run the fridge for a couple of hours per day. Keep unwrapped when you have power so the fridge can dump the heat.
This approach using an inverter is way cheaper than running a generator.
Sorry I did not have time to provide a link.
Great tip thanks
What's an inverter? My main concern when the power goes out is the sump pump in my finished basement........I've considered buying a small gasoline powered generator but haven't gotten around to it.
Thank you for the great idea/advice. Will run out tomorrow early to track down an inverter and another heavy duty extension cord.
You are disregarding the startup surge requirement. Can be as much as triple. I have even seen six times specified.
I have run into this myself with a small portable A/C. Although the inverter was rated for double the continuous amp draw, it would not start, just hummed. The quality of the AC output power is significant also.
The only thing that would save you is if the 750 watts actually IS the startup surge requirement. Possible with the newest ones, I guess.