alt Hacker News>I think a simple generator on an ATS remains undefeated from an engineering perspective.
Let me just inject a bit of nuance here to avoid what I think is an unintentional sleight if hand...
For the small sliver of the population that lives under threat of a large area week long blackout in a hot humid climate, I think a simple generator on an ATS remains undefeated from an engineering perspective.
For the vast majority of the population, it's incredibly rare to lose power for that long, and need AC 24/7 afterwards. It basically only happens in the gulf.
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> For the vast majority of the population
In the spirit of nuance, the vast majority of the population of Florida is at risk. Something like 10% of the US population in total could be impacted directly. You don't actually have to live on the coast to get rocked by a hurricane. Ike took out power for millions in Ohio.
https://www.facebook.com/100044470387919/posts/ohio-remember...
Eastern Canada and New England see multi-day power outages every 5-10 years. I've had power outages when my solar panels were mostly covered in snow.
I have an EV which supports V2L (20A/120V). Even if it supported V2H, I'd want to save the battery for driving.
Our backup power is a 9kW gasoline generator, with a manual transfer switch.
> For the small sliver of the population that lives under threat of a large area week long blackout [...]
I've lost power for weeks from snow, wind, storms, and ice, living in the central midwest and mid south. We lose power almost every time it rains in the spring and summer for many hours.
Homes in cold climates using heat pumps for heat have a similar issue. No grid power means no heat, no heat means frozen pipes and mortal risk to vulnerable people. There is a decision cycle to it too. Central air dies, you replace with a modern heat pump. Then the boiler dies and it becomes difficult to justify replacing it, except the boiler is more practical to run off a battery in a power outage.