What is the best way to power appliances during a long term power outage?

Generator. But, buy one in the “off-season” to get a better deal and buy one that is big enough to cover essentials in your home. The good people at Lowes will assist you and generally, they are the cheapest in town. Compare their price to WalMarts.

I have a battery backup system for my sump pump, but I also have a generator. The generator has saved my food from spoiling during long power outages. It’s well worth the peace of mind.

The best way is a generator.

However, with the possible exception of a refrigerator to prevent rapid spoilage of perishable food items, most modern appliances are really just luxuries.

2nd Answer. My son lives in Seattle. At any given time, he has approximately 300 pounds of frozen Alaska salmon he has caught and brought back home. He takes no chances on his fish thawing out, until consumed. In order to protect his fish and the rest of his home, He has purchased not one, but two generators. Seattle’s weather is not the best in the world and lightning has struck his house twice. His electricity has been off for sometimes two weeks at a time. This is why he has two generators.

“Best” depends on your requirements.

Best if you’re in a sunny area but remote from fuel supplies would be a solar charging system that powers your requirements and daily recharges deep cycle batteries that would work overnight.

“Best” if you can afford it would be some type of “off the grid” system such as Bloom Boxes or equivalent, which you may have seen a couple of years ago on 60 Minutes.

“Best” in terms of lower cost of acquisition and maintenance would be a suitably powerful fuel-driven generator properly wired into your house wiring.

A lot of this depends on how “long term” you expect a power shortage to last, too. You have to determine the parameters for anyone else to guess at what might be “best” for you.

I use a generator. It covers sump pump, freezer, refrigerator and some lights. I also have battery back up for the sump pump so anyone can turn it on if I am not home.

@CWOTUS unfortunately the Bloom Boxes aren’t available for home consumers yet they are only available to large corporations, so right now until they are available I think our options have narrowed a bit to more of a generator or battery back up systems.

Generator.
If you want to hard wire it into your home/bldg. electric so it automatically kicks on hire an electrician or you can just run an extesion cord and plug it in once on.

http://www.briggsandstratton.com/generators-pressure-washers/home-generator-systems/

@tom_g and @worriedguy What kind of battery backup set-ups do you have for your sump pumps? I would love to put something together for mine. That’s the thing I worry most about. A bad rain/thunder storm like a N’oreaster, is one one of the most like scenarios for me to lose power and, of course, when I most need my pumps to be running.

@tom_g What kind of battery back up system do you use?

sorry. currently camping. this is what I have.

@tom_g Thanks!

I just saw the note that you were asking for more info. Sorry for the delay. I did this about 8 years ago so some item may have changed.
I ran a separate line out the basement window and connected it to a 12 V battery powered submersible pump. It was called “Watchdog”. I bought it a Lowe’s. I have it sitting on a block in the sump pump crock so it is higher than the regular electric. that way it will only work if the water gets very high – meaning the electric pump is not working. .
For the electric pump I have a car battery and a 1200 watt inverter which is powerful enough to spin the pump. The pump only takes 180 Watts when running but needs much more when starting. The 1200 watt inverter covers it. Got it at Pep Boys Vector Maxx 2400 Watt Peak 1200 watt continuous.

When I lose power, I simply unplug the pump from the wall and plug it into the inverter and it is good to go. There is enough energy to pump out the crock quite few times. I never tested how many times. I charge the battery periodically, usually the day or two before a storm.
If that system fails the Watchdog takes over.
In the meantime, I have my generator running on my open porch but I NEVER use a zip cord plugged into an outlet so it can backfeed the refrigerator, freezer, and sump pump because that would be dangerous and illegal.

hope you ignored my suggestion about the battery backup. sucks. had to pull out my generator because it couldn’t handle the water