Outdoor power supply instead of charging

Bring big backup power with you with these expert-recommended portable power stations, which can store enough power to charge electronics, appliances, and more.

To use these power stations as a UPS, plug them into the wall, then plug whatever devices you want backed up into the station's AC output ports. When the power is on, those devices use energy from the grid. When there is a power outage, the power station instantly switches these devices to battery power.

These days most portable power stations, including all those we recommend here, use LiFePO4 batteries, which are capable of holding far more cycles, which is the number of times a battery goes through a complete discharge and recharge, than older lithium-ion batteries while also being less likely to combust.

That depends on the capacity of your portable power station, the wattage of your solar panels, and the weather. For example, a 1,000Wh power station that's receiving a consistent stream of 200 watts of power from a solar panel would take about 5 hours to recharge (1,000/200=5). Are portable power stations weather resistant?

Portable power stations have control panels with LED displays and buttons that turn off and on inputs and display usage and remaining power. Most portable power stations are also compatible with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, allowing you to monitor and control them remotely from a smartphone app.

With a great power-to-weight ratio, the latest version of the Bluetti Elite 200 V2 is a great portable power station for powering a camper or providing backup power for the essentials. With its tremendous capacity, the EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 is truly capable of providing a whole-home backup without gas or solar panels.