Apocalyptic Prepping

If you don’t have a generator, or just want a secondary power option, learn to turn a car into a generator

Most power outages are minor annoyances. The lights go out for an hour or two, you call the power company and complain, and things come back on. It’s usually not a life threatening event. Take away power for longer though, and that can be a different story. People lose their minds. We as a society have become reliant on the grid. If you’re reading this now, you’ve got both an electrical device, an internet connection, and some form of power going to both. Some people also need electricity for their medical equipment, for work, or for keeping their food from spoiling. A lot of these people are also priced out from getting a generator.

Luckily, you can turn your vehicle into a generator for a lot cheaper than you can buy a generator. It’s a pretty simple system. When the engine is running, the alternator charges battery. The battery sends power where you need it. This is an extremely simplified explanation, but this is how people make windmills and water wheels work. You can use your car motor running as your generator. It’s not the most efficient generator, but it works surprisingly well.

Inexpensive Generator Alternative:

You can turn your car into a high output generator for between $160-500, depending on how many of the tools you have on hand already. The most expensive part of this system is the power inverter, but there are a lot of different options for this piece, depending on the amount of electricity you need. If you’re going for survival, you probably don’t need as much electricity as a person who doesn’t want a drop at all in their level of comfort. You’ll need to identify everything you’ll want to power, and then start adding up how many watts of electricity they use. Once you get the total wattage, you’ll be able to determine what inverter you’ll need. You may also want to consider getting multiple inverters if you have multiple vehicles. This way you can either divide and conquer your electrical needs, or you can have an additional backup. If you’re relying on electricity for your life saving equipment, you’ll want backups on backups on backups.

What you need to turn your car into a generator:

You’ll need a long extension cord, a gas can, a power inverter, a power strip. You’ll also want to think about securing your running vehicle. It’s also a good idea to know how much electricity the alternator on your car produces. An inverter isn’t able to use more from the vehicle’s battery than the alternator is able to replenish without completely draining your battery. A regular alternator today can generally produce between 40-120 Amps, which is pretty significant. It’s still important to keep that figure, or of you know the amount your car’s alternator produces, in mind.

A car uses 1/5-1/7 gallon of gas while idling per hour. So you can probably run your vehicle as a generator for about 48 hours. Even still, we strongly recommend that you have at least a 5 gallon gas tank on hand to get you going or to a gas station if you run out, or to give you another several hours of power if needed. If you’ve got one, consider getting a second, third, or fourth. Please please please also store your gas safely. We have an article on it HERE if you’re not sure about how you’re storing your fuel.

Electrical Science Terms for Turning Your Car into a Generator Explained:

This article will use some technical electrical terms, namely voltage, watts, and amps. If you’re comfortable with these terms, skip to the next section. The website Jalopnik explained the electrical terms really well:

Amps measure the rate of flow of electricity, and voltage measures the pressure or power. Watts combine amps and voltage, or flow and power. The output of your car is limited by an inverter, but we’ll loog at a simple 330 watt inverter. You get amps by dividing watts by voltage, which will help you determine what you’ll be able to run from that one inverter. For that 330w inverter:

330W / 110V AC = 3 Amps.

3 Amps really isn’t a lot, so you’ll be limited on what you can do. A lot of electronics in your house don’t use large amounts of electricity, such as lights, computers, and even a TV could probably be run from a 330w inverter. Those are pretty much the 21st century electrical life support requirements, right? In an emergency people realize they need more than that though.

Power Inverter:

A Power inverter takes one form of power output and converts into another, in this case from the car’s DC 12v to a 110v AC current, or to put it simply, it turns it into a regular house outlet. As I mentioned above, you’ll need to figure out how much output you’ll want or need so you can determine which power inverter is right for you and your vehicle.

Low Power

This is your cheap starter option. I have one like this that I have in my vehicle for running small electronics inside my car, like a laptop charger, video player, or other small output devices. This will power up to 300 w, which is a start, but won’t run much inside your house as far as appliances go. If that’s not a big deal to you, cool. If you want heat, to keep your freezers going, or if you rely on electric life saving equipment, you’ll want more power coming through your vehicle generator. A small inverter like this doesn’t take advantage of all the power your vehicle has to offer.

Medium Power

This is good to 500, with a peak at 1000. This also has connectors to connect directly to your battery. This is nice because your car’s cigarette lighter 12 v has small gauge wires and can’t handle the higher output needed once you get into the higher wattage. If you’re planning on using any significant power, we’d recommend using the alligator clamps directly on the battery.

High Power

This is good to 2,000 watts. This is the only inverter that can handle keeping a freezer cold. The compressor in a freezer takes a lot of power, and you’ll need all 2,000 watts when that compressor kicks in. If you cycle through what you need connected to power and only have 1 or 2 items connected to this, you’ll be able to keep most things functional in your house, although not all at once, this will meet your needs.

Extreme Power

This will meet your needs. this puts out 4,000 watts. This is your set it and forget it option. It takes a bit more to install, but this can handle multiple freezers, or one freezer and some other appliances. This is also the only one that can handle an electric oven (I’d recommend getting a gas oven if possible. Electrical outages are more common than gas). This is the one you want. This is the one we recommend if you want your car to take the place of your generator. It’s also only 1/10 the price of a good Honda Generator. It’s the way to go, either as a generator backup, or as a first option.

How to Power your Home with Your Car

There are two main ways to connect to your home. The less expensive way is to run a series of extension cords from your power inverter to the devices you need powered. Most power outages happen infrequently enough that this is a realistic solution for most people. It’s not elegant or as efficient as it can be, but it does work. The second option is to connect directly to your home’s power supply. To do this, we strongly recommend that you use a good electrician. He can set you up so that if you’re in a power outage situation, you can simply connect to your car or your generator. You essentially just plug into your house once, and you’re good to go. You’ll want to make sure when doing this that you have enough power for the load of your house. Perhaps before you connect, you unplug or turn off nonessential electronics. Again, you want to make sure you have enough power coming from your generator or car to power everything its hooked up to.

Safety

Carbon Monoxide

Beware of carbon monoxide. Open your garage door. If you’re running this inside a garage, even with the door open, or even close to the house, we STONGLY recommend having a carbon monoxide alarm. You can’t sense carbon monoxide, but it can kill you. Have a carbon monoxide alarm so you don’t kill yourself if you plan on making your car a generator. Make sure it has a battery backup, like this option. Plug it in in the room closest to where your vehicle is running.

Securing Your Vehicle

So you need good ventilation, and we recommend having your vehicle running outside. How do you keep your car from driving away while the keys are in it? First thing you want to do is lock the doors. Make sure you have another key, but lock the keys inside. This will keep most people honest. It’s pretty easy to break a window and drive off though, so you need another layer of security if you plan on making your vehicle a generator.

If you’re lucky, you can park behind a locked fence or locked gate. Most people don’t have this option though. The next best option is to boot yourself. If you’ve ever had a parking violation, and come back to your vehicle, you might have found a car boot on it. These are pretty inexpensive, and keep people from driving away with your vehicle. There are several options for less than $80. We recommend a bigger option and that you put it on the front drivers side wheel. You want this to be obvious. It’s almost impossible to drive away with one of these on, but you also don’t want someone messing up your vehicle by trying it. You want them to see it, realize its not worth it, and leave your vehicle electricity generator alone. If you have any trailers or other vehicles that sit parked, perhaps in a less secure area, it’s just nice to have one or two of these on hand.

Connecting to the House

At this point, all you have to do is connect to power. For this we recommend choosing what matters most in terms of electrical usage. Most all of these inverters have limited output. Selectively choose only a few appliances to use at a time if they’re high output, like a fridge or freezer. You do not need to keep a freezer plugged in all the time. You just need to keep it cold enough, so you can cycle between the freezer and anything else you may need to use, like the stove.

We recommend a heavy gauge extension cord that’s plenty long to reach to what you need. We love this 100 ft, 14 gauge extension cord with 3 outlets so you can connect what you need.

Next Level

If you have multiple freezers, or if you need to run multiple appliances, go bigger or get a generator. A good generator can run most everything in your house. It also doesn’t need to run any extra things that are on a car, so there is some sense of increased efficiency, but it has a big output. This can run 10 hours on a 6 gallon tank of gas. It doesn’t put as much ware on your car, or your car battery either. It does cost several times more than it does to turn your car into a generator though. If you can afford it though, do it. I’d also recommend having the equipment to still use your vehicle as a generator as a backup.

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