Find your power station size in four questions
Answer four quick questions about your trip, what you’ll run, how far you’ll carry it and whether you’ll use solar. We’ll suggest a size and the station we’d start with.
How we compare: we read the maker’s specs, the amazon.com listing and what owners keep mentioning, like real solar input, fan noise and weight. We haven’t tested these ourselves, so runtimes are worked out from watt-hours, with the math shown. How we compare.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Find a station
Size it before you buy
Four quick questions and we’ll suggest the station we’d start with.
1What is the job?
2What do you need to run?
3How much weight will you carry?
4Do you want solar input?
Four short questions
Tell us the job, what you’ll run, how much you’re happy to carry and whether you’ll use solar. We’ll suggest a size and the station we’d start with.
How the calculator sizes a station
Short answer: work out how many watt-hours your gear uses in a day, then pick a station with a bit more than that. Watt-hours tell you how long your load will run. Continuous watts tell you whether an appliance will start and keep going. Then there’s weight, because a station you can’t lift won’t help you, however big it is. Solar comes last, and only if you’re bringing panels.
Here’s the math we use. Take the listed watt-hours and multiply by 0.85 to allow for inverter losses. Then divide by the average watts of whatever you’re running, and that’s your hours. A fridge rests for part of each hour, so use its average draw rather than the label. Its start-up surge is a separate thing, and the station’s continuous and surge ratings need to cover it.
As a rough guide, phones and lights on a camping weekend need 200–300Wh. Add a fridge to that weekend and you’re at 500–800Wh. A fridge in an RV or van points to about 1,000Wh, and several galley appliances, or anything that needs a 30A outlet, point to 2kWh. If you said you’ll carry it on your own, we keep the pick under about 16 lb and tell you when that means going smaller.
Appliance watts
These are typical ranges to get you started. If your appliance label says something different, go with the label. Running watts tell you how big an inverter you need, and watt-hours per day tell you how big a battery.
| Appliance | Running watts (typical) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone charge | About 15Wh per charge | Count this as energy per charge. A power bank covers an overnight top-up. |
| LED camp light | 5–10W | A lantern left on for the evening is a small slice of a 300Wh station. |
| Laptop | 45–65W | Charging a laptop from the USB-C port avoids the inverter when the port is large enough. |
| 12V compressor cooler | 40–60W running, cycling | Roughly 250–600Wh per day, depending on heat. The compressor is off for part of each hour. |
| CPAP | 30–60W | That range is without a heated humidifier. A humidifier draws much more. |
| Roof vent fan | 3–35W | A low setting can run a long time. A high setting is still a light load next to a kettle. |
| Electric kettle | 1,000–1,500W | The limit is continuous watts. A few minutes uses less energy than a fridge day. |
| Coffee maker | 800–1,200W | Read the nameplate. Many drip machines sit near 1,000W while they brew. |
| Microwave | 1,000–1,200W input | Use the input watts on the label. The cooking watts on the door are lower. |
| RV rooftop AC | 1,300–1,500W running | Start-up is much higher than the running figure. Many units need a TT-30 inlet as well. |
Worked examples
Tent weekend on the Jackery Explorer 300
Lights and phones for a tent weekend don’t add up to much. A 10W lantern for 5 hours is 50Wh, and two phone charges at 15Wh each are 30Wh. That’s 80Wh in total. The Jackery Explorer 300 has 292 Wh, and you can draw about 248Wh of that, so your weekend fits with room left for some laptop time. At 300 W continuous, though, it won’t boil a kettle.
Van fridge for two days on the EcoFlow DELTA 3
A 12V compressor cooler often uses about 250Wh on a cool day and about 600Wh on a hot one. So two cool days come to 500Wh, and two hot days to 1,200Wh. The EcoFlow DELTA 3 has 1,024 Wh, and you can draw about 870Wh. That covers two cool days, but not two hot ones, so on a hot weekend you’d top it up from the alternator, shore power or the sun. At a 50W average it’s about 17 hours.
Ten minutes of RV coffee
A 10-minute coffee maker run at 1,000W is about 167Wh before inverter losses, which is a small slice of any battery. The bigger question is watts: the station needs at least 1,000W continuous, or the coffee maker won’t start. The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 is rated 1,500 W continuous, so you’re fine. The Jackery Explorer 300, at 300 W, can’t run it.
How long each station runs
Here’s every station we cover, with rough hours at three common loads: a 50W 12V fridge, a 100W mix of laptop, lights and fan, and a 300W load such as a small TV and a few chargers together. Hours are rounded down.
| Station | At 50W | At 100W | At 300W |
|---|---|---|---|
| EcoFlow RIVER 3 (245 Wh) | 4h | 2h | 0h |
| Jackery Explorer 240 v2 (256 Wh) | 4h | 2h | 0h |
| EcoFlow RIVER 3 Plus (286 Wh) | 4h | 2h | 0h |
| Jackery Explorer 300 (292 Wh) | 4h | 2h | 0h |
| EcoFlow RIVER 2 Max (512 Wh) | 8h | 4h | 1h |
| EcoFlow RIVER 2 Pro (768 Wh) | 13h | 6h | 2h |
| EcoFlow DELTA 3 (1,024 Wh) | 17h | 8h | 2h |
| Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2 (1,024 Wh) | 17h | 8h | 2h |
| EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus (1,024 Wh) | 17h | 8h | 2h |
| Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 (1,070 Wh) | 18h | 9h | 3h |
| BLUETTI AC180 (1,152 Wh) | 19h | 9h | 3h |
| Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 (2,042 Wh) | 34h | 17h | 5h |
| Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 (2,048 Wh) | 34h | 17h | 5h |
| BLUETTI AC200PL (2,304 Wh) | 39h | 19h | 6h |
More on specific loads: How long will a 1000Wh power station run a fridge? · How long will a power station run a CPAP?
What size power station do I need for my house?
A portable power station won’t run your whole house, but it can keep the essentials going. For a fridge, a router, a few lamps and phone charging, 1,000–2,000Wh covers most short outages. Add up the average watts of what you’ll run, multiply by the hours you want, and divide by 0.85. That gives you the watt-hours to look for.
For example, a 150W fridge plus a 10W router and two 10W lamps is 180W. For 8 hours that’s 1,440Wh, divided by 0.85 is about 1,700Wh, so we’d look at the 2,000Wh class. Our home blackout guide goes further.
Common questions
- How does the calculator pick a station?
- Your job and your load set the size. Then we drop anything heavier than you said you’ll carry, and favour stations that suit your kind of trip. If you’re bringing panels, solar input breaks any tie.
- What does the 0.85 in the runtime math mean?
- It allows for inverter losses. You can draw about 85% of the listed watt-hours, so divide that by your load’s average watts to get hours.
- What if my label shows a different wattage?
- Go with your label. Our table is a typical range to plan with, and your microwave’s input watts or your coffee maker’s nameplate are what tell you if a station is big enough.
- Why is the pick smaller than the job I described?
- If you said you’ll carry it on your own, we keep the pick under about 16 lb. When your load really needs something heavier, we suggest the biggest station you can carry and say so. If it can stay put, change that answer and the bigger size comes back.
- How do I calculate what size power station I need?
- Add up the average watts of everything you’ll run at once, multiply by the hours you need, then divide by 0.85 for inverter losses. That’s the watt-hours to look for. Then check that the station’s continuous watts are higher than the biggest single appliance you’ll plug in.