{"post":{"id":426,"title":"Storm season: $1,200 portable power station or a $250 gas generator — what am I missing?","body":"Backup power is suddenly the hottest home-search category and with storms rolling in I am getting the FOMO. But help me with the math: a 2kWh portable power station runs $1,000+ and will not keep my fridge cold for a full day. A $250 gas generator runs the whole fridge and then some, as long as I have fuel. For people who have actually ridden out outages with either one: which would you buy again? I get 2-4 outages a year, usually under 8 hours. What justifies the station's price tag?","community":"Home","score":1,"answer_count":1,"standing":{"kind":"leading","answer_votes":1,"leading":{"id":415,"name":"A basic gas generator, around $250","score":1},"runner_up":null},"author":{"username":"frugaljo","verified":true},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-10-11T00:17:26.022Z","url":"https://settd.com/p/426","thumbnail":null},"comments":[{"id":415,"name":"A basic gas generator, around $250","body":"Do the math per dollar and it is not close. My $220 generator runs my fridge (about 600W running, 1200W startup) all night on roughly a gallon of gas. The power station crowd pays $1,000 to run that same fridge for 6 hours and then needs a $400 solar panel to recharge it. Stations only win if you cannot store fuel — apartment, HOA rules — or you need it dead silent at 2am. For 2-4 outages under 8 hours: generator plus $30 of gas in the garage. Done.","score":1,"rank_score":6,"author":{"username":"marcusbuilds","verified":true},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-10-11T00:22:05.665Z"}],"pagination":{"limit":50,"offset":0,"has_more":false,"next_offset":null}}