I remember the day when I first went off grid in my tiny house, over a decade ago. Solar and battery backup was complicated, hard to get your hands on, and the options few. Today is a different story, there are a ton of varieties and it can be hard to choose.
There are a lot of form factors, sizes, and specs when it comes to solar generators and portable power stations. Having had the chance to use quite a few of these things, I’ve figured out where the different options make sense and which brands are best.
Hi, I’m Ryan
I’m no stranger to battery backups after living off the grid for a decade. I’ve learned a thing or two about them, what they are good for, their limits, and what you can reasonably expect.
What Is A Portable Power Station?
I’m mainly going to focus on portable power stations, which really are just solar generators minus the solar panels. Instead of charging from the sun, you would charge it from your normal AC wall outlet, then you take it wherever you need it.
I have much larger solar generators and my main solar array’s batteries are huge; the batteries alone weigh 1,200 pounds! A portable power station tends to be in the 10 to 20 pound range, for when you need to power something more than a cell phone, but still need it to be portable.
The one I have is the Bluetti Elite 30 V2 Portable Power Station, which I’ll talk more about later, but if you check that out you can get a good idea of what I’m talking about.
Portable Power Station vs. Solar Generator
As I said, the only difference is they don’t typically come with solar panels. You can still charge with panels if you have them or if you can always add them down the road later, but right out of the gate it’s a big power bank with a high-quality inverter and an array of ports.
How Good Are Portable Power Stations Really?
What’s exciting about these portable power stations is that the market is getting competitive and that means the options out there are really quite good if you’re buying from a good brand.
Ten years ago, these were pretty hit or miss, but things have improved a lot, battery technology has gotten more affordable, and the companies are big enough to have good quality control.
The brand I tend to gravitate to is Bluetti because I find them to be the sweet spot of good quality and reasonable price. That doesn’t mean they are the cheapest, but dollar for dollar I think it’s a good value. There are other great brands like Jackery, Ecoflow, and Anker, I just find that your dollars won’t go as far.
I have been keeping my eye on the Harbor Freight Predator power stations, they seem promising, but not as affordable as I had hoped.
Are Portable Power Stations Actually Worth It?
My short answer is yes, especially when you can find one of the brands I mentioned having a sale.
It’s not going to replace my larger solar generator that can run my fridge or freezer, but these units hit a sweet spot for being able to make it through a weekend camping trip or a short power outage for phones, laptops, Starlink, smart watches, blue tooth speakers, or even a TV for a bit.
I realized that I really like having both the larger solar generator AND the smaller portable power station. That way I can use the larger stuff for the essentials, while also keeping smaller devices powered up in an easy to carry form factor.
I use this a lot in my normal daily life when the power is still running. There are times I don’t want to run an extension cord because it would just get in the way. There are times when I’m working around my homestead and need some power away from the house. It’s been great to take camping too.
The battery power station I’ve been using as of late has been the Bluetti Elite 30 V2 Portable Power Station and I’ve found that I reach for it more often than I expected. Where this thing sings is when the power goes out for a while or when I’m camping, I keep this on the kitchen island or on our campsite’s picnic table to run a light, let people plug in phones, run a small fan, and charge up various devices.
The big thing for me is that I can use this almost like a UPS, because it can switch from grid power to it’s battery fast enough that the device won’t be damaged or power off. I have been considering using this for my internet modem because if the power is going out for a few seconds, I can still stay online.
How To Decide Which Portable Power Station Is Right For You
There are a few key things you want to look for. First is battery size, for a portable power station they tend to sit in that 250-350 watt hour range, that will charge a phone 10ish times.
An important factor is to get an idea of the quality of the internals the company puts into these units. The best way I’ve found is to look at how fast it can charge, what it’s normal power rating is and what it can handle for surge power.
For the max wattage it can handle under normal load and what it can surge up to, I’d recommend having something that can power at least 500 watts and surge to 1,500 watts. Looking at different units and comparing these two specs will give you an idea who’s putting good, better, and best internals into their unit.
A lot of these units are pretty similar, but if you choose one of the mentioned brands that has good quality control and the key specs are top of their class, you can see which is best for you.
Your Turn!
- Have you tried out a smaller portable power station?
- What have you learned from using yours?
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