Guides and evidence
Guides, diagnostics and research
Everything published here, grouped by the job you are trying to do. Each card states the question it answers and how it was produced — an interactive diagnostic, a reproducible research table, the published method, a case boundary, or an editorial guide.
Keep a refrigerator cold during an outage
Start from the EnergyGuide number on your own refrigerator, not from a capacity chart.
- Interactive diagnosticRefrigerator outage check“Will 1,000 Wh or 2,000 Wh keep my refrigerator cold for my outage?”A two-minute check: one EnergyGuide figure, an outage length and your realistic daily recharge. Returns a plain-language verdict with the arithmetic on request.Live · deterministic rules · abstains when nothing fits
- Reproducible research tableRefrigerator outage sizing table“Where do those numbers come from, and can I reproduce them?”Converts EnergyGuide annual kWh into 24-, 48- and 72-hour capacity screens, with the formula, the assumptions and the gates capacity alone cannot answer.Reproducible · 15 published scenarios · XLSX and CSV download
- Editorial guideBattery backup for a refrigerator“How much battery backup does a refrigerator actually need?”The daily energy band, the planning factor behind it, and the decision boundary where a portable battery stops being the right architecture.Editorial · primary sources cited · reviewed 10 August 2026
- Editorial guidePortable power station for a refrigerator“Which portable power station size works for a fridge?”Why the running-watts and startup-watts gate decides more size questions than watt-hours do, and where the honest limit sits.Editorial · primary sources cited · reviewed 10 August 2026
Power an RV or travel-trailer weekend
Shore power, TT-30, the house battery you already own, and the loads you will actually run.
- Interactive diagnosticRV weekend power check“Is a portable station enough for my weekend?”Declare your shore-power situation, the battery you already have and the loads you plan to run. Returns whether the weekend closes, or why it does not.Live · deterministic rules · abstains when nothing fits
- Editorial guidePortable power station for an RV“What will a portable station cover in an RV, and what never will it?”Where a portable station fits an RV weekend, the TT-30 arithmetic, and the point at which air conditioning ends the conversation.Editorial · primary sources cited · reviewed 10 August 2026
- Editorial guidePortable power station for a travel trailer“My trailer has no alternator or inverter — what changes?”How the missing charge path changes the sizing for dry camping, and where a portable station stops being enough.Editorial · primary sources cited · reviewed 10 August 2026
When a portable battery is the wrong answer
The site's most useful output is sometimes that none of the portable options fits. These assets describe that boundary and what comes after it.
- Editorial guideInstalled backup: what to collect before you request quotes“A portable station cannot close my outage — what do I gather next?”The exact information to write down before the first installer conversation, so that conversation is a real one. Nothing is sold, requested or forwarded here.Editorial next-step guide only · no installer quotes, no lead capture, no prices, no product recommendation
- Case boundary and abstentionAbstention and case boundaries“When does this site refuse to answer?”The declared conditions under which the correct output is 'none of these fits' rather than a ranked least-bad unit, and how missing, unknown and not-applicable stay distinct states.Published rules · dated · open to correction
Check the method before trusting the answer
Every rule, assumption and correction is published and dated.
- Published methodologyMethodology“How is any of this calculated?”The sizing policy, the catalog evidence policy, and the rule that ranking is computed before any commercial layer is applied.Published · dated · usable energy, losses, reserve, peak as a pass/fail gate
- Published methodologyRevision log“What changed, and when?”Every rule change, catalog status change and correction, with its date and its reason.Dated entries · corrections recorded, not overwritten
What is not here: no installed system quotes, no solar-plus-storage design service, no lead capture, no prices and no product recommendation outside an evidence-gated verdict. The installed-backup page is an editorial next-step guide only.