A portable power station is essentially a ‘mini power grid’ that you can take anywhere. It’s small, and efficient, with a multitude of outlets to charge all sorts of devices. Portable power stations can be a great addition to a weekend camping trip, a caravan holiday, or even as a portable source of power when you’re at home. 

There’s so many choices in the portable power station market, that it’s hard to know which is the best option for you.

To choose the right portable power station, Ask yourself three questions:

1.what kind of things do you want to be able run?

2.how long do you need to run them?

3.Do you just want to charge your portable electronics or maybe you need to power an air conditioner all day long?

1.Estimating Battery Capacity

For Example:

Two day camping scenario(Including 12V Fridge/Freezer for 2 day weekend;

Make a couple of cups of coffee each morning;

Recharge a couple of cell phones overnight; run a small USB Fan overnight): 

  ●12V DC fridge will use about 20 watt hours of battery capacity for every hour of use

   Let’s say equates to 40 hours of runtime. So, 20Wh*40hrs runtime=800Wh

  ●The coffee maker will consume about 75 watt hours of capacity on a single 4 cup cycle

   Let’s say you’ll brew 4 cups each of two mornings during our weekend get away. So, 75Wh*2 mornings=150Wh

  ●Two cellphones to fully charge on two consecutive nights.

   So, 48Wh*2 phones*2nights=192Wh

  ●Small USB fan will consume about 12 watt hours for two nights.

   So, 12Wh*2nights(16hrs)=192Wh

Total, 800Wh+150Wh+192Wh+192Wh=1334Wh+10%=1467Wh(usable) for some extra reserve.

2. AC Inverter Capacity

The maximum power output that we need to have.We can simply add up the continuous watt draw of everything that might need to run at the same time as our highest load, so let get back to the camping scenario.

900W(coffee)+45W(fridge)+18W(phone)+12W(USB fan)≈1000W(AC Inverter Capacity)

1467Wh(usable)*1.2≈1800Wh(rated)

Usable capacity is typically ~80-85% of rated capacity. 

3. Battery Chemistry

4. Max Solar Input

If you want to a full charge via solar in 1 day or less, max solar input watts*5≥Battery Capacity，

For example, let’s say we have a 2000 watt hour capacity power station with a 300 watt solar input max.

300*5=1500wh,But if 1000wh capacity with 600w solar input, it will be 600w*5=3000wh, you only need one third of a day of full sun to have a full charge of power station.

All in all, want to know which kind of portable power station you need? We need to know what is our needs.