Author: Betty Watson
Date: May 13, 2024
The most important part of picking any type of power station is knowing how much you need- but that is not very intuitive for most of us!
How many apples do you want? Five.
How tickets to the concert? Two.
How many watts? Excuse me? How many whats? No watts…
I could go on all day. But never fear! The Powery is here to help you out- whether you just want to know which power station to pick already, or you want counting your watts to become second nature.
There are TWO things to think about when thinking about what size portable power station you need:
POWER / WATTS (W): How much electricity you will use at once, measured in Watts (W).
ENERGY / WATT HOURS (Wh): How long you will need to use that amount of electricity, measured in Watt Hours (Wh)
You will see that all Portable Power Stations include those two ratings, usually right in the headline.
POWER / WATTS (W)
The power rating, in Watts, lets you know how much electricity you can use at once. How much Power you need depends on a) how much power your appliances require, and b) what appliances you want to use at the same time.
The appliances vary widely in their power requirements, with a cell phone using about 5 Watts and an electric kettle using about 1,500 Watts! Here are a few more examples:
You can always use our handy "How Much Does It Use?" guide for more appliances or leave a message in the comments if you don't see what you're looking for.
Once you know how much power your appliances need, you add up the Watts of all the appliances you want to use at the same time. So, if you want to charge your phone, run your lantern and fan all at the same time you would need a power station that can provide:
5 + 8 + 42 = 55 Watts.
ENERGY / WATT HOURS (Wh)
Now that you know how much power you need, let's figure out how much energy you will need from your Portable Power Station. The energy rating, in Watt Hours (Wh) will tell you how much electricity you can use in total over the full charge of the Power Station, not just how much you can use at any one time. How much energy your appliances need depend on a) how much power they use and b) for how long.
Here are some examples of how much energy various appliances use based on how long you might expect to use them:
So, if you want to charge your phone 2 times, run you lantern for 4 hours and you fan for 8 hours, you would need a power station that can provide:
12x2 + 8x4 + 42x8 = 392 Watt Hours.
And now you know what size portable power station you need! As always, you can always check our "How Much Does It Use?" guide for the Watt and Watt Hour requirements for many more appliances or leave a message in the comments if us to add new appliances. We love to know what you plugging into those Portable Power Stations!
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