Donna called me last May, just as the first named storm of the season was forming off the coast. Her voice was a mix of panic and frustration. “Marcus,” she said, “I charged my power station, but it’s only at 60%! And I can’t find the solar panels!” She had bought a decent unit after … Read more
I was driving through Houma, Louisiana, just three weeks after Hurricane Ida made landfall in 2021. The sheer scale of the destruction was something I hadn’t seen even in my worst Florida storm seasons. But what struck me most wasn’t the downed trees or the damaged roofs; it was the sound. Or rather, the lack … Read more
Can a portable power station actually run my refrigerator? For how long? What happens if I leave it plugged in all the time? Do I need to do anything to maintain it? I get variations of these questions constantly — from readers, from neighbors, from people who found this site three hours into a power … Read more
Hey, quick note — this one should’ve gone up before my Generac vs EcoFlow and Kohler vs Generac posts, but it got lost in the scheduling shuffle, so here it is now. $10,847. That’s what a Generac 22kW air-cooled standby generator would have cost me, installed, at the middle quote of three I got from Jacksonville … Read more
182 pounds. That’s the shipping weight of the Bluetti EP500 Pro. Ray found this out the same way most contractors do — not by reading the spec sheet first, but by watching two delivery men struggle it off a freight pallet and wheel it into a garage while the homeowner stood there looking mildly horrified. “I … Read more
Chris called me, his voice tight with frustration. “Marcus, you won’t believe this. I was on a critical client call, presenting the Q3 numbers, and the power just poof went out. My Generac kicked on, but there was that 15-second delay, and the Wi-Fi dropped. I looked like an amateur.” Chris, bless his heart, spent … Read more
Donna asked me the question that I realized I’d never actually measured properly. We were standing in my driveway after the second day of a 2024 outage — the power station inside was at 31% — and she looked at the 220W panel propped against the fence and said: “So how many hours until that … Read more
4.5 million. That’s how many Texas homes and businesses lost power during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. According to the Texas Comptroller’s impact analysis, 69% of Texans lost power at some point during the February 14–20 event. Some for hours. Many for days. A significant number for the entire seven-day span. At least 246 people died … Read more
Yes. But not for the reason most people expect, and not at every price point. The solar panel question comes up constantly — usually from someone who just bought a DELTA Pro and is wondering if the $350–$400 for a 220W panel is worth adding. Chris asked me this almost word for word. He’d bought … Read more
The week after Hurricane Milton hit in October 2024, Ray had eleven generator installs booked. Not eleven inquiries — eleven confirmed jobs, permits already pulled, customers who’d called him during the storm because they’d finally had enough. He told me about it over the phone while he was driving between jobs. He sounded tired in … Read more
