How many watts do I need for camping?
The number that matters is not a total — it is the largest load you will run at one moment, plus the surge that load needs to start. Get that right and the rest is arithmetic.
Guides
Portable power guides
11 explanations of how this category actually works: how to size a station, why a fridge is a surge problem rather than a capacity problem, what battery chemistry buys you, and how to read the numbers on a spec sheet.
Every figure in these guides is computed from our dataset of 107 models from 12 brands — vendor-published specification data, not measurements of ours. WattPicks does not test power stations, and these pages never claim otherwise.
Can a portable power station run a mini fridge?
Yes — and it is the single most common reason people buy a mid-size station. The trap is that a fridge is not a constant load, so the arithmetic people use is wrong in both directions.
How long does a portable power station last?
"Last" means two unrelated things — runtime on a single charge, and service life before the battery degrades. Confusing them is how people end up disappointed by a purchase that was fine.
Portable power station vs solar generator: what is the difference?
One term describes the box, the other describes how you plan to fill it. Understanding which one you actually need comes down to how you will recharge.
Portable power station vs home generator
This is not a watts question. A modest generator out-powers any station we track. The real difference is whether the outage lasts hours or days, and whether you can run a generator where you live.
How to store and use a power station in cold weather
Cold and heat do opposite kinds of damage. Cold temporarily reduces what you get out of a pack; heat permanently shortens its life. Winter storage is mostly about avoiding the second while tolerating the first.
What size power station for RV boondocking?
Off-grid in an RV, the question is not what can run, but what you can put back. Recharge is the constraint, and it decides the size far more than your appliance list does.
500Wh vs 1000Wh power station: how to choose
Doubling capacity does not double what you can run — it doubles how long you can run it. Whether that is worth the weight and the money depends on which of those two things is your problem.
LiFePO4 vs NMC in a power station
This is the specification that decides how long a purchase lasts, and the one most buyers skim past. In the data we hold, the gap between the two chemistries is not subtle.
Cost per watt-hour, explained
This is the ranking most buyers actually want, and the one that most easily misleads. Both halves of that sentence are true, so the formula and the blind spots are stated together.
Watt-hours per pound, explained
Portability is the specification buyers regret most, and this is the only way to compare it across models. It also has a bias you have to know about before you use it.