Jim Yanik wrote:

snip
I salvaged and ratholed some 12V fans from PC power supplies,and after
Hurricane Charlie knocked out power,I used two of them with a 12V/20 A-H
SLA battery to give me some quiet air circulation at night so I could sleep
in the 90+ deg temps. It was just enough to make me comfortable.
I also had a 8-AA cell 12v fluorescent lamp that I made an ext.power cable
to connect to a 12v SLA or car battery for lighting.

When I lost power some many years ago, I got six 200 AH deep cycle 12V
marine batteries (factory cosmetic seconds) to power a Sola 2.5KVA UPS
which I wired into the breaker panel, first disconnecting the utility
service. To charge the batteries I mated a 10 HP Briggs horiz. shaft
engine to an old military DC generator set; it's duty cycle was governed
by the batteries' specific gravity. The power was cleaner than what
I normally had and the UPS was continuous duty rated

Michael