I have zero experience with them but have read many articles about having one or more on board. I understand there are limitations on the types of equipment that can be run from one due to the wave shape, however I was thinking that using one as an emergency AC power source for power tools might be an idea?

Seems that the three main concerns are size of the battery bank (s) drawing power from, equipment draw and size of the inverter. Even though I have upsized the house battery to a group 31 (leaving a group 24 for the starting battery), that does not seem to be a lot of storage to me. I was thinking of running something like a 3/8" variable speed drill, possibly a small microwave. Although we now have a small 1500 watt electric cooktop, I'm sure a single group 31 would not have sufficient capacity to support that. The articles I have read suggest that you determine your AC needs, then purchase an inverter with a capacity of double that.

Am I going down the wrong path?