Simple Off-Grid Refrigeration for Medical Supplies

There are many ways to go about powering small equipment, refrigerators, chest freezers, and the like if the grid goes down temporarily. One of my favorite methods is to simply buy an 800-watt inverter and connect it to your vehicle’s battery, which should provide enough power to keep a standard refrigerator or chest freezer functioning indefinitely, so long as you have gasoline to keep your car or truck running. Barring that, you could simply focus on keeping life-saving medications cold with a small setup like that shown in the video below.

Truth be told, my solution (buying an inverter and stockpiling gasoline) is probably less expensive in total, although the mini fridge featured in the video is, like he says, dirt cheap at less than $35 new on Amazon. It’s the portable power station which can get costly. That said, this Jackery portable power station outputs up to 200-watts continuous and costs just shy of $200. I found a lesser expensive power station, but it won’t charge via solar panels, if that’s of interest.

Regardless, if you rely on life-necessary medications which also need refrigeration, you really do need to ensure you can keep it cool for days or weeks if the power goes out.