A U.K. household looking for ways to preserve a freezer full of lamb during a prolonged power outage discovered it already owned a potential backup tool. Their car battery inverter could be an unlikely hero.
Here's what to know
An extended blackout, rather than a short interruption the household could handle by leaving the freezer shut, was the concern raised in a post on Reddit's r/UKPreppers community. The poster said their household buys whole lambs from a nearby farmer.
"I'm not sure whether to practice some salt curing. We do have a smoker so could smoke it too," the original poster wrote.
Using the household's existing car battery inverter would require either a long extension lead or moving the freezer. The poster described those obstacles after a commenter suggested powering the appliance with an inverter.
The discussion did not establish whether their particular inverter could safely power the freezer, but they expressed optimism they could "make it work!"
More background
Bulk meat purchases directly from producers and a supply of raw food for their dogs left another commenter with a substantial investment stored in their freezers. To protect it, they had bought a generator to run the appliances periodically.
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"One could say your assets are frozen," a commenter joked.
Cooking would not solve the lack of refrigeration, the poster pointed out in response to a suggestion to cook everything. They said the meat could still spoil, and they conceded they "wouldn't want to take my chances after even six hours without refrigeration in summer."
They needed a way to preserve more food than the household could immediately eat.
What can be done?
Bottles of water, with room left for expansion, were one commenter's alternative to buying extra meat or prepared meals just to fill empty spaces in the appliance. The same commenter recommended a Bluetooth thermometer to monitor temperatures without repeatedly opening the fridge.
Another commenter's outage plan was to shut off selected circuits, since they owned whole-house solar panels and batteries that could operate independently of the electricity grid. The original poster's inverter plan could also come into play with some trial-and-error.
Sharing food was also suggested as a community-level fallback. One commenter recalled a five-day outage caused by a tornado while living in Canada.
"When I lived in Canada and we had a 5 day power cut because of a tornado, we just BBQd it all and shared it with the neighbours," they wrote. "No point letting it go to waste."
Responding to the commenter who used a generator to keep bulk-bought food frozen, the original poster wrote: "Why didn't I think about a generator!"
Where can I learn more?
Protecting a freezer full of meat during a long outage means planning for backup power and monitoring temperature.
• A portable power station owner reported 300 Wh of idle drain despite switching the freezer off overnight.
• A homeowner seeking freezer power alerts received advice to monitor temperatures instead.
• A Jackery Explorer 1000 owner said backup power saved $300 in groceries during an outage.
• A portable power station owner saw the battery drop 10% with a refrigerator connected despite wall power.
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