Your Ryobi, DeWalt, or Milwaukee batteries are more useful in a blackout than you think

I’ve ridden out a power outage on the same batteries that run my drill. A small clip-on inverter turned one of my 18V packs into a working outlet, keeping phones topped off and a lamp burning until the grid came back. Hardly anyone buys tool batteries with blackouts in mind. They get bought for deck projects and shelf brackets, then sit in the garage fully charged, holding more usable energy than every flashlight in the house. Ryobi, DeWalt, and Milwaukee owners all have this option waiting, and the battery platform was always the smart buy anyway. Pressing those packs into emergency duty costs a fraction of what dedicated backup gear runs.