How to Choose a Portable Power Station (and Why You Need One)

There is a growing risk of blackouts – our national power grid is aging, our electricity needs are growing, and the climate is becoming increasingly volatile. The most common solution people think of is a gas or propane generator. These big, heavy machines pack a lot of power, but come with some drawbacks. They require fuel and cannot run indoors, making this a problematic solution for people who live in apartments or townhouses without outdoor space (and you must run generators at least 20 feet from any structures, so you need plenty of outdoor space to their use).

That’s why, probably, everyone should have what is called a portable power station. In fact, these are huge batteries that can store electricity and power a number of devices and appliances when the lights go out. If you can’t start a gas generator or need power that’s a little more portable than those 100kg behemoths, that’s not a problem.

Benefits of portable power station

Why do you need a portable power station? Let’s take a popular model as an example: Bluetti EB55 . While these stations vary in cost (the EB55 retails around $500), features, and power, this is a pretty typical portable power station in many ways:

• It has a power output of 537 watt-hours (with a maximum output of 700 watts), which means that it can work with a wide range of devices. The calculation here is pretty simple: 537 watt-hours means it can put out 537 watts for one hour, or one watt for 537 hours. Let’s see what this means in practice. A typical TV needs about 150 watts, so the EB55 can run it for about 3.5 hours. The 11W LED bulb will last more than 30 hours. Together, these devices consume about 161 watts, so you can work on them for just over three hours. The more energy you draw, the shorter the charge will last.
• It has 12 outputs, including four USB-A ports and one USB-C port, which can support fast charging, a wireless charging pad on top, 4 standard AC sockets, and a DC car adapter.
• It uses several charging options, including solar and car charging, with the ability to combine them to speed up the process.

The principle of operation is simple: you charge the station at full capacity and then wait until you need it. When the light turns off, 700W is enough to charge phones and laptops repeatedly, as well as turn on lights or small appliances. As long as the power consumption is less than 700W, the station can handle it (it can handle surges that often happen when you initially plug in power-hungry devices up to 1400W, but if you exceed the 700W limit for more than a few seconds, they will automatically turn off to prevent damage).

Having one or two of these in your home provides many benefits:

• Safe indoors. Unlike a gas generator, you can safely operate these power plants indoors. There is no smoke or other problems. Even if you have an outdoor space to run a generator, brief power outages may not be worth the effort if you can just plug in a few lights and charge your devices from a power station.
• Portable. The EB55 weighs about 16.5 pounds – even a small gas generator would weigh almost twice as much. The device has a carrying handle, making it easy to carry it from room to room as needed or toss it in your car when you’re escaping the dystopia your neighborhood is turning into with the lights off. This also means they have a wider application than gas generators because they can be taken on non-emergency trips.
• Sunny. The easiest and fastest way to charge a portable power station is to plug it into a wall outlet, but if the power goes out, you can also plug it into a solar panel. The EB55 has a 200W solar input, so you can charge it in about 3 hours from a solar panel under ideal conditions (bright sun). In cloudy conditions this will obviously take longer, but unlike a gas generator, you can charge your station during the day and be powered again at night.
• Small. Like power, these stations vary in size, but are generally much smaller than gas generators, making them easy to store until you need to take them apart.

Bottom line: A portable power station isn’t a whole-home solution, but it will make your next power outage more comfortable.

How to choose

Choosing a portable power station depends on your specific needs and lifestyle. A few things to consider:

• Wattage: Think about what you’ll need to power when the lights go out and do a little research on the power requirements of the devices so you can calculate how much watt-hours you’ll need for a portable power station. If you just need to charge a few phones and run one or two LED light bulbs for a few hours, you might not need more than 150Wh of portable power, which you can get for less than $100. If you think you’ll need days of power or need to run larger units, you can splurge on more power – you can even get 4000-5000Wh portable power plants (hell, EcoFlow models are expandable with extra batteries that can draw up to 25,000 watt-hours ), but they are very expensive and often as large and heavy as gas generators, although these behemoths still offer the advantage of being safe to use indoors. The best location for these stations is in the 500-2000 Wh range; this is where you get the benefits of being portable with enough power to make a difference.
• Battery Type: These stations are basically just large batteries with very smart controls and charging technology. Most of them offer lithium-ion batteries, which are pretty standard in the industry, but some are made with lithium iron phosphate batteries, which last longer and are more resistant to high temperatures. Some models, such as Goal Zero’s Yeti 150 , offer a user-replaceable battery, which means you can replace the battery if it starts to fail without having to replace the entire device.
• Charging Cycles: Different models offer different battery life. The EB55 can be charged and discharged about 2,500 times before the battery begins to run out, but other models can be much lower (or higher). If you plan on using your station frequently, this is an important consideration.
• Ports: Most portable stations offer a variety of outputs – USB ports, wireless charging, AC ports, DC ports, etc. Think about what you’ll need for power and make sure the model you choose supports it. For example, the EB5 only has one USB-C port, so if you need multiple ports, you might want to look elsewhere.
• Charging options: Nearly all portable power stations can be wall-mounted for charging, which is a great way to ensure a charged battery during a power outage. But being able to recharge during a power outage is very important. Look for a few options – solar is a must, though most solar panels come with an extra charge. But having adapters included that let you charge your battery from a car, for example, gives you another option for cloudy days, and the ability to combine two or more charging methods to speed up the process is a great feature.
• Size: Finally, make sure you can easily store the station. If your apartment is bursting at the seams, take some measurements and balance the power with the size of the device so you don’t have to balance it on a toaster or whatever during the short breaks between emergencies.

A portable power station is often a better choice than a traditional gas generator and at the very least offers much more flexibility in the event of an emergency. Hey, you can even live stream the next catastrophic event in your area like a star.

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