What size power station does your outage need?
List what you would keep running and for how many hours a day. You get the capacity, running watts and start-up watts to shop for, and which stations in our table cover it.
Last updatedOct 18, 2026
Stations checked9, specs and prices from maker US stores, Oct 18, 2026
Result
0Wh
- Daylight
- Twilight
- Night
- Battery left, smallest fit
- Runs out
Medical equipment on this list
Size for medical equipment with your doctor and equipment supplier, not from a typical figure. The FDA advises telling your electric company and fire department that you use powered medical equipment. What to check first.
Stations that cover this list
Sorted by capacity. The smallest one that passes all three checks is shaded. Prices are what each maker's US store showed on Oct 18, 2026, and change often.
| Station | Capacity, Wh | Covers | AC output, W | Surge, W | Store price | Verdict |
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Next: add solar to stretch the outage, or open the full spec table.
How the size is worked out
Daily energy is each appliance's watts × how many × hours a day, added up. The capacity to buy is that daily energy × days, divided by the usable share and the inverter efficiency, because a station never delivers its full rating as AC power.
Running watts assume everything on the list is on at once, which is the safe way to size the inverter. A fridge counts as its compressor running, 160 W, the top of what Embraco's 115 V household compressors draw at their rating point. A frost-free fridge also runs a defrost heater for a short spell about twice a day while the compressor is off. NEEA measured 425 W on a 2006 fridge, so the output check also covers that moment. Start-up adds the largest single motor surge: GE and Whirlpool both say to allow about twice a refrigerator's running watts (GE, Whirlpool). Your fridge's rating plate is a cautious upper bound; compare it on the refrigerator page. Sources are on Methods.
The starting list is a small household's outage day: a top-freezer fridge (the ENERGY STAR median, 363 kWh a year), the internet gateway, three LED bulbs for 5 hours and two phones. Change it to match your home.