If the power goes out, do you have an inverter that you could use to charge your batteries from your car or a fully-charged 12v battery?
Seems like every inverter on Amazon gets crappy reviews, and also seems like they are as over-rated on watts as Chinese lights are on lumens.
So what is a decent budget inverter that I should have on hand if I need it?
(might also use it if I buy a couple of solar panels to keep a 12v battery charged)
I used to work for an inverter mfr, and my friend continued to work there until recently. He always tells me not to buy the cheapest models because they’re less robust, less
reliable, have rougher (squarer) waveforms, won’t start up some inductive loads,have exaggerated output ratings, use cheaper components, etc.
.
So at the company we worked for, there was the cheap model line that you’d see in flyers, and those used almost a square wave, then there was the middle line that performed better but you wouldn’t see those in flyers often; those had a smoother but still stepped waveform, and there was the “pro” line that was industrial quality and used a purely sinusoidal waveform.
I haven’t worked there in about 15 yrs though, so things might have changed.
This is a extremely inefficient way of charging your batteries, try to find a charger that will run directly from 12Volts. I charge using a hobby charger or Pilla with the 12V cord
TR-001 runs on 12v. with a common DC plug. I’ve only tried it to check if it works, not a full charge.
One of the reasons I bought this on the group deal is, it has a 12V input. Seems the perfect thing for when I go camping. Charge my cells in the car.
Guess it kind of depends what you really want to run too. I have a cheapie 300 Watt one that is a stepped wave and should be alright for charging batteries and such. It was only $60 or so.
I just bought abetter Pure Sine Wave 600 Watt one from an auto shop here (Super Cheap) I think it was $240 ish. This one is to run and charge my laptop, stepped waves are not recommended for computers or delicate electronics.
IIRC most average 90% efficiency, so getting one way to big is not efficient. Kind of like generators, you need to match one for its purpose.
I have one (somewhere) 
I haven’t used it in a while. The other thing I ever used it for was to charge a battery pak from the car for my dive light when on camping/diving trips.
It worked so I’ve never thought about inverters other than that really.
I think I bought it from Radio Shack and I’m pretty sure I bought whatever the cheapest model that they had was.