I’d still have to deal with wheeling it out, and doing periodic oil changes. Not sure how/where I’d want to deal with a 200lb unit… A natural gas unit would be more practical - I don't have gasoline yard tools.
I could get a transfer switch installed and use my house’s main AC unit. The cost of the larger generator isn’t that much more and I wouldn’t need a window unit and lots of cords.
Of course, then I could skip the portable unit and get a whole house generator with automatic transfer switch.
It’s hard to put a finger on it. The “cheap” solution doesn’t seem worthwhile while the others start making me wonder “how often does the power really go out”? It all seems silly for 3 days outage once every 5-10 years.
I think very little is worth it for three days every few years. Instead, I see the benefit of batteries + solar or a serious generator as reducing tail risk from rare serious disasters that leave the grid down for months or longer. These are not likely, but if they happen I'd want to have something in place.
I figured refrigerator uses about 1KWh per day. Just 2 days would require 200Ah of 12V batteries. Lithium looks attractive for weight and other factors but is more expensive than lead acid.
Have a large overhang that could temporarily be used to lay panels on too.
For portable AC unit, seems like would need another 10KWh per day or so of capacity. At that point, generator becomes more financially practical…
Also wrestle with how much I can depend on solar.
If only 100KWh of battery capacity was practical…