Portable Power Station Runtime: Camping, Blackouts and What It Really Runs
A portable power station's runtime is usable watt-hours divided by your load in watts. On a 1,024Wh station with about 85% usable after inverter losses, that's roughly 870Wh to spend. It runs a 10W string of lights for three and a half days. It runs a 2,000W fan heater for 26 minutes.
That gap is the entire story of portable power stations. They're excellent at small loads for a long time and terrible at anything that makes heat.
Use the Power Station Runtime Calculator, enter the station size in watt-hours and your average load in watts, and it does the usable-capacity adjustment for you.
What a 1,024Wh station actually runs
These are calculated at 85% usable, so 870Wh. Halve or double them for a 512Wh or 2,048Wh station.
| What you're running | Average watts | Runtime on 870Wh usable |
|---|---|---|
| LED camp lights | 10W | About 87 hours |
| Modem and router | 15W | About 58 hours |
| 40L 12V camping fridge (average draw) | 18W | About 48 hours |
| CPAP, humidifier off | 35W | About 25 hours, roughly three nights |
| Laptop, normal use | 50W | About 17 hours |
| Starlink standard dish | 65W | About 13 hours |
| Small 240V bar fridge | 80W average | About 11 hours |
| Television | 100W | About 8.7 hours |
| Electric blanket | 100W | About 8.7 hours |
| Coffee machine | 1,200W | About 43 minutes |
| Electric kettle | 2,000W | About 26 minutes, or roughly 8 litres boiled |
| Fan heater on high | 2,400W | About 22 minutes |
Check the compliance plate on your own appliance. Ratings vary between models.
The rule that saves you money
Anything that heats or cools by brute force will flatten a power station. Anything electronic will run for ages.
- Great fit: lights, phones, laptops, cameras, drones, routers, Starlink, CPAP machines, a 12V fridge, a fan
- Workable but expensive: a coffee machine or kettle in short bursts, a small induction hob for a few minutes, power tools on a battery charger
- Don't bother: fan heaters, hair dryers on high, electric blankets all night on a small station, air conditioning, anything with an element
Watch continuous watts, not just watt-hours
A station has two numbers that matter and people only read one. Watt-hours is the tank. Continuous output watts is the size of the tap.
A 1,024Wh station with a 1,000W inverter cannot run a 1,200W kettle at all, no matter how full the battery is. It'll throw an overload error and shut down. Surge rating (often twice continuous, for a second or two) only helps motors starting up, like a fridge compressor or a pump.
Before you buy, check the compliance plate on the gear you actually want to run and make sure the continuous rating clears it with headroom.
Fridges: the duty cycle trick
A 12V compressor fridge rated at 45W doesn't draw 45W all day. The compressor runs, hits temperature, and stops. In mild weather it might run 30% to 40% of the time, so the average draw is more like 15W to 20W. That's about 400Wh a day.
In a hot car at Christmas in Queensland, that duty cycle can climb past 60% and the same fridge becomes 700Wh a day. Shade, insulation and not opening the lid every ten minutes make a real difference to how long your station lasts.
Recharging from solar in the real world
Panel ratings are lab numbers measured at a set light level and temperature. In the field, a 200W folding panel realistically delivers 120W to 160W in good midday sun, less when it's hazy, hot, dusty or badly angled.
Rough planning maths for an Australian summer:
- A 200W panel gives roughly 800Wh to 1,000Wh on a clear day if you move it to follow the sun
- Leave it flat on the ground in one spot and that drops to maybe 500Wh to 700Wh
- Overcast can knock it down to 10% to 25% of rated output
So one 200W panel roughly refills a 1,024Wh station over a good day, and doesn't keep up if you're also cooking or running a heater. If you're planning to stay out indefinitely, size your panels around your daily consumption, not the battery size.
Camping: what a weekend actually costs
Typical two-night trip for a couple with a 40L 12V fridge:
- Fridge: 400Wh per day = 800Wh
- Lights: 20Wh per night = 40Wh
- Two phones charged twice: 60Wh
- Camera batteries and a speaker: 60Wh
- Total: about 960Wh
A 1,024Wh station gets you there with nothing spare, which means you either want a bigger station, a panel, or a fridge running off the car's DC socket while you drive. A 2,048Wh station covers that trip comfortably and leaves room for a bad day.
Blackouts: what to plan for
In a storm outage, the loads worth planning are small and boring.
- Phones: about 15Wh each per charge. Trivial.
- Modem and router: 15W, so 360Wh a day. Worth knowing that if the outage took out the NBN node or the mobile tower's backup, your internet is gone anyway.
- CPAP: 30W to 40W without the humidifier, so 240Wh to 320Wh for a night. Turn the heated humidifier off and you roughly halve it.
- Fridge: a 240V household fridge averages 60W to 100W, so 1.4kWh to 2.4kWh a day. Most portable stations won't run one for a full day. Keeping the door shut buys you 4 to 6 hours for free.
- Medical equipment: don't estimate. Check the device rating and talk to your supplier about backup requirements.
LiFePO4 stations handle being kept at full charge better than older lithium-ion ones, and most rate 3,000 or more cycles to 80% capacity. Check the charge level every few months so the backup you're relying on isn't sitting at 20% when the power goes out.
Australian buying notes
- Buy a unit sold for the Australian market with proper 240V outlets and local approval marks. Imported units with foreign sockets and no local compliance are a bad idea around a house.
- Check whether it does pass-through charging if you want it to sit between the wall and your gear.
- Airlines will not carry these in checked or cabin baggage. Anything over 160Wh is banned from passenger aircraft, and a power station is many times that.
- Heat is the enemy. A station baking in a closed car in February will throttle or shut down.
Related calculators
- Power Station Runtime Calculator for a quick answer
- Battery Runtime Calculator for amp-hour batteries and inverters
- UPS Runtime Calculator for computers and network gear
- Blackout Prep Calculator for working out what else you need on hand
- Power Bank Capacity Calculator for real charges out of a power bank
Frequently asked questions
How long will a 1,000Wh power station last?
About 850Wh to 870Wh is usable after inverter losses. That runs a 10W light for around 87 hours, a 50W laptop for around 17 hours, a CPAP with the humidifier off for around 25 hours, or a 2,000W kettle for about 26 minutes.
Can a portable power station run a fridge?
A 12V camping fridge, easily. It averages 15W to 25W once you allow for the compressor cycling, so about 400Wh a day. A full-size 240V household fridge averages 60W to 100W and needs 1.4kWh to 2.4kWh a day, which is more than most portable stations hold.
Why can't my power station run my kettle?
Watt-hours is the tank, continuous output watts is the tap. A station with a 1,000W inverter will overload and shut down on a 1,200W kettle no matter how charged it is. Check the continuous output rating against the appliance's compliance plate before buying.
How much solar do I need to recharge a power station?
A 200W folding panel realistically delivers 120W to 160W in good midday sun, which is roughly 800Wh to 1,000Wh across a clear day if you reposition it. That refills a 1,024Wh station in about a day. Overcast weather can cut output to 10% to 25% of rated.
Can I take a power station on a plane?
No. Lithium batteries over 160Wh are banned from passenger aircraft in both cabin and checked baggage. Portable power stations are far above that limit.