Power Station for a Blackout
When the power goes out, the goal is usually keeping a small set of essentials running rather than powering the whole house. This calculator starts with a common home-essentials combination — adjust it to match what actually matters in your household.
Select your devices
Total load: 210 WKitchen & Food
Climate & Comfort
Entertainment & Gaming
Electronics & Office
Medical
Lighting
Laundry
Add a custom device
Enter your power station’s capacity in Wh to see a runtime estimate.
This is an estimate. Real-world runtime can be lower than the theoretical figure due to inverter efficiency losses, fluctuating (not constant) device draw, ambient temperature, battery age/health, and other factors. Always check your power station’s official specifications before relying on it for critical use.
Prioritize before you size
Before buying or sizing a power station for outages, list out what genuinely needs power versus what can wait. A common priority order: refrigeration (food safety), any medical equipment, communication (router/phone charging), and lighting — with things like a full entertainment setup or a dishwasher further down the list, if included at all. Every device you add in the calculator above directly shortens the runtime of everything else, so a shorter, deliberate list usually beats a long one.
How long do outages actually last?
Outage duration varies enormously — from a momentary blip to multi-day events after severe weather. Rather than guessing a single number, it's worth sizing for a realistic worst case for your area (check your utility's historical outage data or local news archives) and treating anything shorter as a bonus margin, rather than sizing for a best-case scenario and hoping it holds.
Power stations vs. fuel generators for home backup
A genuine advantage of a power station for home backup: it produces no exhaust fumes and can be safely used indoors, unlike a gasoline or propane generator, which must always run outdoors and well away from windows and doors due to carbon monoxide risk. The tradeoff is capacity and recharge speed — a power station has a fixed, finite capacity per charge, while a fuel generator can run continuously as long as fuel is supplied. Many households use a power station for quiet, safe essentials and reserve a generator (if they have one) for larger, longer-duration needs.
Don't forget medical devices
If anyone in your household depends on a CPAP machine or other electrical medical equipment, plan for it explicitly and with extra margin — see our CPAP power station calculator for device-specific guidance and an important safety note.
Frequently asked questions
What's a good starter power station size for home blackouts?
For a fridge, router, a few phone chargers and some lighting run for around 8–12 hours, many households land in the 1000–1500 Wh range — but always confirm against your own device list using the calculator above, since actual needs vary widely by household.
Should I run my whole house off a power station?
For most portable power stations, no — running an entire home (especially anything with a compressor like central AC, or high-draw appliances like electric ovens) exceeds what a typical portable unit can sustain. Portable power stations are best suited to a prioritized subset of essential devices, not whole-home backup, unless you've invested in a large, dedicated home battery system.
Is it safe to run a power station indoors during a blackout?
Yes — unlike fuel generators, battery-based power stations produce no exhaust fumes and are generally safe for indoor use. Still, follow your specific manufacturer's guidance on ventilation, temperature and placement.
How do I keep my power station charged and ready for an outage?
Most manufacturers recommend periodically topping up a stored power station (check your specific model's guidance on ideal storage charge level and recharge interval) rather than leaving it fully depleted or assuming it will hold a charge indefinitely. Treat it like any stored emergency equipment — check it periodically, not just when you need it.