Buying Guides
Best Portable Power Stations for Power Outages (and What Size You Need)
General information only, not professional advice. In an emergency, call 911 and follow local officials. How we use sources
In this guide
Most families need one of three sizes of portable power station: a small one for phones, lights and a router, a mid-size one that can also carry a refrigerator and a few essentials, or a large one built to feed several household circuits. Which one you need comes from adding up the watts and watt-hours of the devices you cannot do without, not from the largest number printed on the box. This guide walks through that math with published numbers, then compares seven models.
We did not test any of these units. What follows comes from the makers’ own product pages, which we read on November 10, 2026, from UL Solutions on safety standards, and from federal guidance on power outages. Where a maker’s page did not state a figure, the table says so instead of filling the gap from memory. If anyone in your home depends on powered medical equipment, talk to your medical provider and the device maker first. Follow your local emergency officials, call 911 in an emergency, and when in doubt, don’t.
Quick answer: which of the three sizes?
The capacity ranges below are our grouping of the figures on the maker pages we read, so treat them as a starting point and confirm your row with the math in the next section.
| Size class | Capacity range (watt-hours) | What it tends to suit |
|---|---|---|
| Phones and lights | roughly 250 to 500 Wh | Phone charges, a laptop, a router, an LED lamp, a small fan |
| Fridge and essentials | roughly 1,000 to 2,000 Wh | The above plus a refrigerator or chest freezer for a limited time, a TV, a CPAP if its maker agrees |
| Home circuits | 2,500 Wh and up, often expandable | Several large loads, sometimes 240 volt, with any house hookup done by a licensed electrician |
What size do you need?
Five steps get you there. The only gadget involved is an optional watt meter.
Step 1: list what must keep running. Write down the electric things you would actually miss: the refrigerator, a router, a few lights, phone chargers, any medical device. Keep it short, since every item raises the size you need.
Step 2: find each device’s watts. Two terms first. A watt (W) is how fast something uses power at a given moment. A watt-hour (Wh) is power used over time, so a 10 W lamp left on for five hours uses 50 Wh. A station’s capacity is listed in Wh and its output rating in W. At least one roundup we read labels capacity in watts, so check the unit on every number.
The Department of Energy says where to find the figure, and how to measure it:
“The wattage of most appliances is usually stamped on the bottom or back of the appliance, or on its nameplate. The wattage listed is the maximum power drawn by the appliance.”
“just plug the monitor into the electrical outlet the device uses, and then plug the device into the monitor. It will display how many watts the device uses.”
Source: DOE, Estimating Appliance and Home Electronic Energy Use (energy.gov), accessed November 2026.
If the label gives amps instead, multiply by the voltage; DOE’s own example is 120 volts times 3 amps, or 360 watts. The monitor in that second passage is a plug-in watt meter, and it shows what a device actually draws rather than the label maximum.
Step 3: turn watts into watt-hours. Multiply each device’s watts by the hours you want it running. A 500 Wh station could, on paper, power a 500 W device for one hour. Add the totals for the stretch you are planning, whether one night or one day.
Step 4: allow for losses. The number on the box is the battery’s full capacity, and you will not get all of it at the outlet. Bluetti publishes how it works this out for its AC180: running time equals battery capacity, times depth of discharge, times inverter efficiency, divided by the load plus the unit’s own draw. For that model it states 90 percent depth of discharge, 85 percent efficiency and self-consumption of about 15 W. Its worked example is 1,152 Wh times 90 percent times 85 percent, divided by 115 W, which comes to about 7.66 hours. Those are one maker’s figures for one unit; other makers will differ.
Step 5: check the surge. Many devices pull more power for a moment when they start than while they run. Rated output is what a station can carry continuously; surge is a short boost above it. Yahoo Tech describes that higher number as “a short (two to five second) boost” and warns against treating it as real output. In a support reply about window units, Jackery says air conditioner compressors can briefly draw 3 to 8 times their running power when they turn on. That is a vendor statement about air conditioners, not a standard, but a refrigerator also runs on a compressor, which is why surge matters for a fridge too.
What common devices draw
These are published figures from retailer, maker and press pages, not agency numbers. Even DOE says the values in its own calculator “are samples only; actual wattage of products varies depending on product age and features.” Treat each row as a starting guess until you have your own reading.
| Device | Published figure | Where it came from |
|---|---|---|
| Phone, one full charge | 11 to 18 Wh | EcoFlow, Harbor Freight, Yahoo Tech |
| Laptop, one full charge | 50 to 60 Wh | EcoFlow, Harbor Freight, Yahoo Tech |
| Wi-Fi router | 10 W | EcoFlow, Harbor Freight |
| LED lamp | 10 W | EcoFlow, Harbor Freight |
| CPAP | 30 to 60 W | Harbor Freight, Automoblog |
| Refrigerator, full size | 120 W to 700 W, depending on the source | EcoFlow, Automoblog, Harbor Freight |
| Sump pump, 1/2 horsepower | 1,050 W | Harbor Freight |
| Coffee maker or microwave | 900 to 1,200 W | Harbor Freight, EcoFlow, Yahoo Tech |
| Space heater | 1,500 W | Harbor Freight |
| Window air conditioner, 8,000 BTU | 750 W | Harbor Freight |
On the CPAP row, no page we read says what a heated humidifier or tube adds, so read the label on yours.
A worked example, and why it is only an example
Say you want a router and one LED lamp running for twelve hours, four phones charged from empty and a laptop charged twice:
- Router and lamp: 20 W for 12 hours is 240 Wh.
- Four phone charges at 11 to 18 Wh each: 44 to 72 Wh.
- Two laptop charges at 50 to 60 Wh each: 100 to 120 Wh.
That adds to 384 to 432 Wh. Borrow the 90 percent and 85 percent figures from Bluetti’s AC180 and a unit delivers about 76 percent of its label, so you would be looking for a label near 500 to 570 Wh. That still leaves out the station’s own draw. Bluetti puts the AC180’s at about 15 W, which over twelve hours would be another 180 Wh; a smaller unit may draw less, and its manual is the place to check. This is arithmetic, not a promise about any unit, and it shows how a modest list can outgrow the small class once losses are counted.
Why refrigerators and pumps are the hard part
The refrigerator is the load most people want to keep, and the tables handle it worst. Published figures for a full-size fridge run from 120 W to 700 W, a spread of nearly six times, and Yahoo Tech lists an average fridge at 2 kWh per day. A compressor also cycles on and off, which DOE accounts for this way:
“To estimate the number of hours that a refrigerator actually operates at its maximum wattage, divide the total time the refrigerator is plugged in by three.”
Source: DOE, Estimating Appliance and Home Electronic Energy Use (energy.gov), accessed November 2026.
Run that rule on a full day and 24 hours plugged in becomes about 8 hours at maximum wattage. With the 120 W figure that is roughly 960 Wh for the day before losses. With the 700 W figure it is 5,600 Wh. That gap is why we will not tell you a station “runs a fridge for X hours.” The answer depends on your fridge, so read its nameplate or put a watt meter on it for a day.
Bluetti also warns that its runtime formula “is NOT suitable for inductive loads with compressors, like refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.” A sump pump is a motor load too, and none of the sources we read gives its startup draw. If either is on your list, check that the station’s surge rating covers the start, and ask the maker if you are unsure.
You also have a fallback that needs no battery:
“The refrigerator will keep food cold for about four hours. A full freezer will keep the temperature for about 48 hours.”
“Throw out food if the temperature is 40 degrees or higher.”
Source: Ready.gov, Power Outages (ready.gov), accessed November 2026.
Our page on how long food lasts in the fridge without power covers what to keep and what to toss. For the first hours of an outage in general, the plan in what to do when the power goes out comes before any equipment.
Safety: what the federal pages say, and what they leave out
The federal generator pages we read are written for fuel-burning generators. We found no federal page that addresses battery power stations, so nothing below means an agency has approved a station or called it safe for any room. What follows is the gas generator guidance, plus general advice on lithium-ion batteries.
The CPSC says:
“NEVER use portable generators indoors or in garages, basements, or sheds. They should always be used outside well away from windows, doors, vents, or any other opening.”
Source: CPSC, Generators and Engine-Driven Tools (cpsc.gov), accessed November 2026.
The CDC says:
“Never use a generator inside your home or garage, even if doors and windows are open.”
“When using a generator, use a battery-powered or battery backup CO detector in your home.”
Source: CDC, Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning Basics (cdc.gov), accessed November 2026.
A battery station does not burn fuel, so it has no exhaust of its own. That describes the product; it is not a safety guarantee from us or anyone else. Where to use and charge it is a question for the maker’s manual. Keep a CO alarm in the house anyway, since a neighbor’s generator or a car running in an attached garage may still be in use during an outage. Our guide to carbon monoxide detectors covers where they go.
Plug devices into the station, not the house. FEMA writes about generators:
“Never plug it into a wall outlet or main electrical panel.”
Source: FEMA, Generator Safety, Stay Safe (fema.gov), accessed November 2026.
That page does not mention battery stations. We apply the same caution to one anyway: run cords from the station to each device, and treat anything that would feed house circuits as a job for a licensed electrician, who can tell you what transfer equipment your local code requires.
Lithium batteries need ordinary care. A power station is a large lithium battery. The US Fire Administration’s battery pages cover lithium-ion batteries in general and do not name power stations, but the basics carry over:
“You should store lithium-ion batteries at room temperature when possible. Do not charge them at temperatures below 32 degrees F (0 degrees C) or above 105 degrees F (40 degrees C).”
Source: USFA, Battery Fire Safety (usfa.fema.gov), accessed November 2026.
“If a battery is smoking, hissing, punctured or swollen, stop using it immediately.”
Source: USFA, Lithium-Ion Batteries: Everyday Convenience, Hidden Fire Risks (usfa.fema.gov), accessed November 2026.
Makers publish their own temperature limits too. Bluetti lists the AC180 at 32 to 104 degrees F for charging and -4 to 104 degrees F for discharging; Jackery lists the Explorer 300 v2 at 32 to 113 degrees F to charge and 14 to 113 to discharge. By those figures, a station sitting below freezing is outside its charging range, which matters in a winter storm. Our winter storm preparation guide has the rest of the cold-weather plan.
Ask which safety standard it meets. UL Solutions, a private testing body and not a federal agency, separates two standards. Portable power packs fall under UL 2743, and UL describes them as batteries meant for use when grid power is unavailable, “such as in camping or emergency situations.” A unit certified only to UL 2743 has not been certified as a stationary home energy storage system, which falls under UL 9540. UL adds:
“Simply combining individual, independently certified products in the field does not result in a certified (Listed) system.”
Source: UL Solutions, Q&A: Portable Power Packs (ul.com), accessed November 2026.
So a station is a portable product, and wiring one into your house like a permanent home battery is a separate matter for your electrician and inspector. We did not confirm a UL 2743 listing on any maker page we read; the Bluetti AC180 page says “UL Standard” without naming a number. No federal page we read says to buy a particular listing, and we are not saying it either. Ask the maker which standard and which lab.
Medical devices. We are not giving medical advice. Ready.gov says:
“Talk to your medical provider about a power outage plan for medical devices powered by electricity and refrigerated medicines.”
Source: Ready.gov, Power Outages (ready.gov), accessed November 2026.
Whether a station suits a given device is for your doctor and the device maker to decide, and a switchover speed is a product spec, not a medical guarantee. HHS also runs the emPOWER Program for communities where people rely on electricity-dependent medical equipment; your provider can say whether it applies.
For the equipment itself, our power station entry on the binder resources page lists what to look for.
How we compared the models
We read each maker’s own product page on November 10, 2026, and wrote down what it states. We did not measure capacity, output or runtime.
- Where a page showed sold out, pre-order or a later ship date, we say so. Availability changes quickly, so check the maker.
- “Not stated on the page we read” means the text we captured did not give the number, not that the maker never publishes it. Some spec tables load by script and did not come through.
- There are no star scores and no ranking.
Only one small-class unit had a maker page we could read in full, so that class gets one named example.
The models, by size
“Cycles” are each maker’s rating of how many full charges the battery should handle before it drops to a stated capacity level, and that level differs by maker.
| Model | Capacity | Rated AC output | Surge | Chemistry | Cycles (maker’s claim) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackery Explorer 300 v2 | 288 Wh | 300 W | 600 W | LiFePO4 | 4,000 to 70%+ capacity |
| Jackery HomePower 1000 Plus v2 | 1,024 Wh | 1,800 W | 3,600 W | LiFePO4 | 6,000 |
| EcoFlow DELTA 2 | not stated on the page we read (“1-3kWh Energy Storage”) | 1,800 W (up to 2,200 W in X-Boost) | not stated on the page we read | LiFePO4 | 3,000+ |
| Bluetti AC180 | 1,152 Wh | 1,800 W | 2,700 W | LiFePO4 | 3,500+ to 80% |
| Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 | 2,048 Wh | 2,400 W | 4,000 W | LFP (lithium iron phosphate) | 4,000 to 80% |
| Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus | 3,584 Wh | 3,600 W | not stated on the page we read | LiFePO4 | 6,000 |
| Bluetti Apex 300 | 2,764.8 Wh | 3,840 W | 7,680 W (maker’s “lifting power”) | LiFePO4 | up to 6,000 to 80% |
| Model | Switchover when power drops | Expansion (maker’s claim) | Warranty | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackery Explorer 300 v2 | UPS, 0.01 s or less | none stated | 3 years plus 2 (at Jackery.com) | 8.16 lb |
| Jackery HomePower 1000 Plus v2 | under 10 ms | up to 11 kWh with added packs | up to 5 years (at Jackery.com) | 23.8 lb |
| EcoFlow DELTA 2 | EPS mode, “almost instant” (time not stated) | one extra battery | 5 years | not stated on the page we read |
| Bluetti AC180 | not stated on the page we read | add-on batteries to 4,224 Wh | 5 years | about 35 lb (the page also gives 37 lb) |
| Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 | UPS, 10 ms | up to 4 kWh | not stated on the page we read | 41.7 lb |
| Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus | not stated on the page we read | up to 21 kWh | up to 5 years (at Jackery.com) | not stated on the page we read |
| Bluetti Apex 300 | ”0ms” (one passage also says “0ms or 20ms”) | modular, figure unclear on the page | not stated on the page we read | not stated on the page we read |
We left out the Apex 300’s solar and expansion numbers because its page contradicts itself on both. LiFePO4 and LFP name the same chemistry, lithium iron phosphate. The USFA pages we read do not compare lithium chemistries, so we make no safety claim about it.
Fit notes
Jackery Explorer 300 v2, smallest to carry. At just over 8 pounds, its specs fit phones, a laptop, a router and lights, with a listed UPS response. The page said sold out on the day we read it, and 300 W is well under the 700 W fridge figure one retailer lists.
Jackery HomePower 1000 Plus v2, mid-size with room to grow. Its specs leave room for a TV or a CPAP beside the small loads, and it may carry a small refrigerator for a limited stretch once losses are counted. The page showed “Notify Me” in places.
EcoFlow DELTA 2, capacity to confirm. Base capacity and surge were not in the page text we read, and we are not filling them in from memory. Confirm both on the current page.
Bluetti AC180, the one with its math published. It sits in the same class as the HomePower 1000 Plus v2. Its UPS behavior was not stated, the page gave a December ship date, and Bluetti says not to run an air conditioner or washing machine on it.
Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2, the upper fridge tier. It is the largest fridge-and-essentials unit here, with a listed 10 ms UPS function. It is also the heaviest unit with a stated weight, and the page named no warranty length.
Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus and Bluetti Apex 300, the home-circuits class. The Apex 300 lists 120 and 240 volt output, and Bluetti describes powering essential circuits through its own panel. Connecting either to house wiring is the electrician’s job described above. Several cells were blank, and both pages carried pre-order or later ship dates.
Recharging: wall, car and solar
All seven pages list wall charging, and most list solar and car charging too. Solar speed, as Yahoo Tech puts it, “depends on the wattage of your panels, how many you have, and how large your power station is.” Check the unit’s solar input limit before buying panels: Bluetti lists 500 W maximum for the AC180, Jackery up to 400 W for the HomePower 1000 Plus v2, and Anker 800 W for the C2000 Gen 2. Harbor Freight, a retailer, warns that exceeding a unit’s voltage limit can trigger a safety shutoff or damage it.
“Solar generator” is another name you will see for this same kind of product, a battery station sold with or for solar panels. It does not burn fuel.
For storage between outages, follow the maker’s schedule. Bluetti tells AC180 owners to recharge to 40 to 60 percent every three to six months.
When a station is not the right tool
A fuel-burning generator keeps running for as long as you can refuel it, and it is the hazard the CPSC, CDC and Ready.gov warnings describe, so it stays outdoors. Our power outage guide covers that side, including the distance rules. A station runs only on the watt-hours it has stored until you can recharge it. That limit shows up fastest with heat. A space heater is listed at around 1,500 W, so by plain arithmetic it would use the full 1,024 Wh label of a HomePower 1000 Plus v2 in about two-thirds of an hour, before losses. Read our space heater safety guide before plugging one into anything. A window air conditioner is a compressor load, startup draw included.
Light is the opposite case. A flashlight or headlamp gives light without touching a station’s stored energy, and it is worth having before a station.
Frequently asked questions
Can a portable power station run a refrigerator? It can if its surge covers the fridge’s startup draw and its stored energy covers the hours you need. Published figures range from 120 W to 700 W, so measure your own fridge and compare it with the unit’s rated output, surge and capacity.
Can I use one indoors? Gas generators never go indoors. For battery stations we found no federal page either way, so follow the maker’s manual and keep a CO alarm anyway.
Can it run a CPAP? The figures we found put CPAP machines at 30 to 60 W, but no source we read covers a heated humidifier. Ask your medical provider and the device maker, and check your own label.
Can it power my whole house? The small and mid-size units here are sized for a short list of devices, not a house. The large ones are where makers talk about home backup and circuits, and connecting any station to house circuits is work for a licensed electrician.
Final thoughts
Make the list, read the watts off the labels, multiply by hours, allow for losses and pick the class that fits. Then check the model against the maker’s current page and ask which safety standard it meets. If someone in your home relies on a powered medical device, the Family Emergency Binder has a Disability and Equipment Needs page for power-dependent devices and a Power Outage page with the generator safety steps.