The best portable power station for home backup is the one sized from your own list of loads and hours, not from the biggest number on the box. For most households that want the internet and a home office to keep running, that means a 1 kWh class station with lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) cells and a UPS mode. Add a refrigerator, or plan for a full day and night without recharging, and you are in the 2 kWh class or an expandable system. For the internet alone, a 300 Wh unit does the job.
Ready list
Jackery Explorer 300 293 Wh lithium-ion
A light 293 Wh unit for a go-bag, a router and a few phone charges.
$259.00 Checked on Amazon Oct 18, 2026, 9:25 PM UTC Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change.
Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 1,070 Wh LiFePO4
About 1 kWh of LiFePO4 storage and a 1,500 W inverter: a laptop, router, phone chargers and a lamp through a full working day.
$499.00 Checked on Amazon Oct 18, 2026, 9:25 PM UTC Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change.
Anker SOLIX C1000 1,056 Wh LiFePO4
1 kWh LiFePO4 with a pass-through UPS mode that keeps a laptop, router and monitor going when the mains drops.
$499.99 Checked on Amazon Oct 18, 2026, 9:25 PM UTC Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change.
Chosen from manufacturer specifications and published reviews, not tested by us. The full Readiness kit
A power station is a battery, an inverter and several chargers in one box. It has no engine and no exhaust, so it can sit in the kitchen or the home office, and it refills from the wall, solar panels or a car. It is built for hours, which is the opposite of a desktop UPS, built for minutes. Here is how to work out what you need, then which unit fits.
Start with the requirement: loads, hours and a way to recharge
Three questions decide the size, in this order.
- What must run? List each device with its watts. A plug-in power meter beats the label, which gives the maximum draw.
- For how long? Hours per day for each device, and the number of days the plan has to cover. One working day, a storm night and a long weekend are very different batteries.
- How will you refill it? Wall power between rolling outages, solar panels, a car's 12 V socket or a generator. In a multi-day outage the recharge path matters more than the capacity you started with.
Put the list into our power station runtime calculator. It adds watt-hours per day, takes 85 percent of the rated capacity as usable (inverter and battery losses), and tells you how many days a given station covers and what capacity your plan needs. Three household cases, run through it:
| Scenario | Loads | Energy per day | Capacity needed for one day | How the classes do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internet only | Router 12 W and modem 10 W, around the clock | 528 Wh | About 621 Wh | 300 Wh class: about 11 hours. 1 kWh class: about 1.7 days |
| Home office day | Internet, plus a laptop 60 W for 8 h, a lamp and phone charging | 1,098 Wh | About 1,292 Wh | 1 kWh class: about 0.8 of a day. 2 kWh class: about 1.6 days |
| Office plus fridge | The above plus a fridge at 150 W for 8 h of compressor time | 2,298 Wh | About 2,704 Wh | 2 kWh class: about 0.76 of a day. Needs expansion or recharging |
The fridge line uses the calculator's preset, 150 W for 8 hours a day to stand in for a compressor that cycles on and off. Yours may differ by a wide margin, so measure it over a full day if you can.
Two lessons come out of the table. Always-on loads add up: a router and modem draw only 22 W, yet over 24 hours they use almost half the home office day. And a refrigerator roughly doubles the battery you need. If the fridge is the reason you are buying, size for it first and treat everything else as extra.
What to compare on the spec sheet
| What to check | What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity (Wh) | Your daily need ÷ 0.85, times the days | Only about 85 percent reaches the outlets |
| Continuous AC output (W) | Above your peak draw with room to spare | A higher peak trips the inverter |
| Surge rating | Enough for the biggest motor at start-up | Fridges and pumps draw several times their running watts for a moment |
| Chemistry | LiFePO4 for a unit kept for years | Longer cycle life and stable cells |
| UPS mode | A stated switchover time | Without it, a mains failure drops everything plugged in |
| Expansion | An add-on battery port | Lets a 1 kWh unit grow when needs change |
| Recharge | Fast AC charge plus solar input | Refills between rolling outages and in long ones |
Here is how the six picks compare on the figures their makers publish:
| Station | Capacity | AC output (continuous) | Chemistry | UPS mode (maker's figure) | Expandable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackery Explorer 300 | 293 Wh | 300 W | Lithium-ion | None listed | No |
| Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 | 1,070 Wh | 1,500 W | LiFePO4 | Within 20 ms | No |
| Anker SOLIX C1000 | 1,056 Wh | 1,800 W | LiFePO4 | Under 20 ms | Yes, to 2,112 Wh |
| BLUETTI AC180 | 1,152 Wh | 1,800 W | LiFePO4 | 20 ms | Yes, up to 4,224 Wh with a B80, B230 or B300 |
| Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 | 2,042 Wh | 2,200 W | LiFePO4 | Within 20 ms | No |
| EcoFlow DELTA and RIVER range | 572 Wh (RIVER 3 Max) to 4,096 Wh (DELTA Pro 3) | 600 to 4,000 W | LFP | Under 10 ms on RIVER 3 Max and DELTA 3 Plus | DELTA 3 Plus to 5 kWh, DELTA Pro 3 to 48 kWh |
Readiness kit
- Jackery Explorer 300293 Wh lithium-ionShop on Amazon
- Jackery Explorer 1000 v21,070 Wh LiFePO4Shop on Amazon
- Anker SOLIX C10001,056 Wh LiFePO4Shop on Amazon
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. All picks
Chemistry and cycle life
Lithium iron phosphate has become the default for home backup units, and for good reason: the makers quote thousands of cycles. Jackery's manual for the Explorer 1000 v2 gives 4,000 cycles to 70 percent or more of capacity, Anker quotes 3,000 cycles to 80 percent for the C1000, and BLUETTI quotes 3,500 or more to 80 percent for the AC180. Note the different end points before comparing them.
For a unit that lives in a closet and comes out a few times a year, cycle count matters less than two dull habits. Keep it charged, checking it every few months against the storage advice in its manual. And keep it out of the cold when you need to recharge: Jackery's manual, for example, gives a charging range of 32 to 113°F (0 to 45°C).
UPS mode: useful, with a limit
A UPS mode lets the station sit between the wall and your devices, passing mains power through and switching to its battery when the mains fails. The makers above quote switchover times of 20 ms or less, and EcoFlow quotes under 10 ms for some newer units.
A laptop will not notice, because it has its own battery. Many small adapters ride through as well, though it is worth checking yours. A desktop PC is the risky case. Jackery's manual is unusually direct about it: the UPS function does not support 0 ms switching, should not be used with data servers or workstations, and should be tested several times before you rely on it. If a desktop has to survive the moment of the outage, put it on a conventional unit from our UPS battery backup guide and let the station carry the long hours.
Fridges, freezers and medical devices
A station can keep food cold, but it does not have to run the fridge every minute. Ready.gov says a closed refrigerator keeps food cold for about four hours and a full freezer holds its temperature for about 48 hours, so keeping the doors shut buys you time before you need the battery at all. Before you rely on a station for a fridge, check that it starts the compressor. The start-up surge, not the running draw, is what trips an inverter, and the place to find that out is your kitchen on an ordinary afternoon.
Medical equipment needs more care than a buying guide can give. Ready.gov advises having alternate plans for refrigerated medicines and power-dependent medical devices. If anyone in the house uses a CPAP machine, oxygen equipment or another powered device, ask the equipment supplier or the prescribing clinician which backup power options the device maker supports, and ask your utility whether it keeps a list of customers who depend on powered medical equipment. Do not assume a station's runtime figure applies to a specific device.
Our picks, by household
For the internet alone, or a go-bag, the 300 Wh Jackery is light and simple: about 11 hours of router and modem time by the calculator. For one person's working day, the 1 kWh class covers it, and the choice is about features. The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 is the plain option. The Anker SOLIX C1000 adds an expansion battery path to 2,112 Wh and a fast wall recharge, which Anker puts at 58 minutes. The BLUETTI AC180 has a little more capacity and the widest expansion choice of the 1 kWh units here. For a fridge as well as an office, or two people working, step up to the 2,042 Wh Jackery, or to an expandable EcoFlow DELTA if you expect to add batteries later.
Selection method: we built this list from manufacturer spec sheets, user manuals and published reviews, and we did not test any of these stations ourselves. Capacities, outputs and switchover times are the makers' own figures; check them on the current product page.
Readiness kit
| Category | Pick | Why it is on the list | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power station, small | Jackery Explorer 300 | A light 293 Wh unit for a go-bag, a router and a few phone charges. | Shop on Amazon |
| Power station, 1 kWh | Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 | About 1 kWh of LiFePO4 storage and a 1,500 W inverter: a laptop, router, phone chargers and a lamp through a full working day. | Shop on Amazon |
| Power station with UPS mode | Anker SOLIX C1000 | 1 kWh LiFePO4 with a pass-through UPS mode that keeps a laptop, router and monitor going when the mains drops. | Shop on Amazon |
| Power station, 1.1 kWh | BLUETTI AC180 | A middle size for a small office: 1,152 Wh of LiFePO4 and enough output for a fridge or a coffee maker. | Shop on Amazon |
| Power station, 2 kWh | Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 | Twice the storage of the 1 kWh class for a home office that has to last a full day off grid. | Shop on Amazon |
| Power station, expandable | EcoFlow DELTA and RIVER stations | Fast AC recharging, and the larger DELTA units take add-on batteries when a site needs more hours. | Go to EcoFlow |
If the plan is to keep staff working from home through regional outages, the station is one part of a home working standard that also covers a second internet path and a fallback location. Our piece on continuity planning for hybrid work sets that out.
Where a power station stops
Wells, sump pumps, central air, electric ranges and water heaters are beyond what a portable unit should carry for long. For those, the options are an installed home battery or a generator. If you go the generator route, size it with our generator size calculator and follow the official safety rules without exception: Ready.gov says to run generators outdoors only and at least 20 feet from windows, doors and attached garages, with working carbon monoxide alarms on every level of the home. Connecting a generator to household wiring takes a transfer switch installed by a licensed electrician. Businesses facing hurricane season can find the wider checklist, from fuel to switchgear, in our hurricane readiness guide for small business.
Sources
- Jackery user manual for the Explorer 1000 v2 (model JE-1000D): capacity, cycle life, charging temperatures, UPS function.
- Anker SOLIX C1000 product page and datasheet (model A1761): capacity, output, UPS switchover, expansion, recharge time.
- BLUETTI AC180 product page: capacity, output, UPS switchover, expansion batteries.
- EcoFlow US product pages for the DELTA and RIVER ranges.
- Ready.gov: Power Outages
Kit check
- Jackery Explorer 300 293 Wh lithium-ionShop on Amazon
- Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 1,070 Wh LiFePO4Shop on Amazon
- Anker SOLIX C1000 1,056 Wh LiFePO4Shop on Amazon
Frequently asked questions
What size portable power station do I need for home backup?
Add up watts times hours for everything you want to run in a day, multiply by the number of days, and divide by 0.85. Internet alone needs roughly 600 Wh a day, a home office day about 1,300 Wh, and an office plus a fridge about 2,700 Wh.
Can a portable power station run a refrigerator?
Many 1 kWh class and larger stations can, provided the inverter handles the compressor's start-up surge. Using the calculator's fridge preset (150 W for 8 hours a day), a 1,056 Wh station lasts about three quarters of a day on the fridge alone. Test it at home before an outage, and keep the doors closed.
Can I use a portable power station for a CPAP machine?
That question belongs with your equipment supplier or prescriber, who can tell you which backup options the device maker supports. Ready.gov advises having a plan for any power-dependent medical device before an outage. Do not rely on a general runtime estimate for medical equipment.
Is a power station better than a generator for home backup?
They solve different problems. A station runs indoors, silently and without fuel, but stores a fixed amount of energy. A generator runs as long as there is fuel and carries bigger loads, but must run outdoors, at least 20 feet from openings, with carbon monoxide alarms inside.
