comments:
Considering everything you’ve said, I would recommend the following approach: To satisfy your desire to have something quickly, purchase one Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus (you should have it in a few days). Fully charge it when you get it, and put it in a closet for the next outage. Buy four 15 amp 25 foot extension cords and four power strips. When power goes out, bring the Jackery out of the closet and place it in a central part of your home for the rooms you want power and run extension cords to each room and plug whatever you want powered into power strips at the end of each extension cord. You’ll have for the things you mentioned for two days. If that seems sufficient for awhile, you can rest there. However, if you want more security, then the second purchase is a generator. I have this one, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085828BQ6, it’s relatively quiet and will charge the 5000 at close to 1800 watts (~30% increase in 5000’s battery charge per hour). With a few gallons of gas in your garage and one of the above extension cords, you can extend your power by a few days. After that, if you decide you need more convenience, then purchase an STS, have it wired into the house, move your Explorer 5000 to that location, plug it into the STS and enjoy the simplicity of instant backup power. Your generator will still be handy in case of an extended outage. If you want more time without having to pull out the generator, then get a second Explorer 5000 Plus and hook it up to the STS to double your run time. And if that is not enough, add expansion batteries. The beauty of this plan is that you get some comfort quickly having a backup plan, and if it’s not enough, you only are spending the amount of money needed to get you to a happy place.
I bought one of these to recharge my HomePower 3000 if there wasn’t enough sunlight to charge with the 900 watts of solar panels I have. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085828BQ6 It will charge the HP 3000 (and the Explorer 2000 Plus) at its max AC charging rate.