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How can I use a car battery for electricity?

Is there a way for me to use a car battery to generate electricity? I’m wondering if car batteries can be used in emergencies such as a power outage, for example.

avatar
Jason Crosby · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
It is possible to power your home using a car battery if you lose power, but you’ll need something called a power inverter first before you can just hook up your
battery
. The reason? Most household appliances use AC (alternating current), and your car’s battery is DC (direct current). Your power inverter will come with clamps to attach to your battery’s terminals, to both the positive and negative poles.
Attach the black clamp to the black (negative) terminal on your battery, and the red clamp to the red (positive) terminal. This is an important step—failure to pay attention to which terminal you’re attaching to could result in a fire, sparks, or electrocution, so be careful. Next, plug a surge-protected power strip into your power inverter and allow the inverter to power up. From here, you’ll be able to plug your
appliances
into the power strip and use them as normal.
One last tip: most power inverters come with two functions—continuous and maximum power. Keep your power inverter on continuous power to prevent blowing any fuses in your house.
And now that you know how to power your home with a car battery, you should also know how to maximize your savings when it comes to home and car insurance with
Jerry
. A licensed broker, Jerry does all the hard work of finding cheap quotes from the top name-brand insurance companies and buying new car insurance. Jerry will even help you cancel your old policy.
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