Power station vs generator for home backup
A power station is a battery with outlets. It's quiet, has no exhaust and works indoors, but it runs down. A portable generator burns fuel outside and keeps going as long as you refuel it. The right one depends on what you need to run, and for how long.
Updated , by Alex Rowan
Side by side
| Power station | Portable generator | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | Built-in battery, recharged from a wall outlet, solar panels or a car | Gasoline, propane, or either on a dual-fuel model |
| Where it runs | Indoors or out. No exhaust | Outside only, at least 20 feet from the house (CPSC) |
| How long it runs | Until the battery is empty | As long as you have fuel |
| Capacity is listed as | Watt-hours (Wh) of storage and watts (W) of output | Running and starting watts |
| 240 V for a well pump | Rare. Most have only 120 V outlets | Common on larger models |
| Noise | Cooling fans | An engine |
| Upkeep | Keep it charged | Oil changes, fuel storage and the maintenance schedule in the manual |
Two numbers matter on a power station. Watt-hours is how much energy the battery holds, which sets how long things run. Watts is the most it can deliver at once, which sets what you can plug in. A generator is sized by watts only, because the fuel tank sets how long it runs.
When a power station is the better fit
- Outages in your area usually last hours, not days.
- You live in an apartment or condo, or have no safe spot 20 feet from the house to run an engine.
- The priority is a CPAP, phones, lights, a router or a laptop. These draw little, so a mid-size battery runs them for a long time.
- You need power overnight, inside, while everyone sleeps.
A refrigerator is possible too. It cycles on and off, so its average draw over a day is far lower than its running watts. The table on this page shows how long a 2 kWh power station runs each appliance on its own, using sourced figures.
Solar panels stretch a power station through a longer outage, as long as the sun cooperates. How much they add depends on the panel size, the season and the weather, so treat solar as a top-up rather than a guarantee.
When a generator is the better fit
- Outages where you live can last several days, such as after hurricanes and ice storms.
- You need high-draw appliances: a space heater, a window air conditioner or several things at once. A 1,500 W space heater empties a battery quickly.
- You’re on a well pump. Many run on 240 V, which most power stations can’t supply.
- You can store fuel safely and keep up with the engine’s maintenance.
The trade-off is safety. A generator makes carbon monoxide, and the CPSC says about 100 people die in the US each year from portable generator CO. It has to run outside, away from windows and doors, and it can’t sit in the rain unprotected. The carbon monoxide guide and the rain guide cover the rules. Running house circuits from a generator also needs a transfer switch or interlock kit installed by an electrician; see the backfeeding guide.
Having both
The two cover each other’s weak spots. The generator runs during the day to power the big loads and recharge the power station. The power station runs the fridge, the CPAP and the router overnight, when you’d rather not have an engine running outside. Check that the power station accepts AC charging at a rate your generator can supply.
The permanent options
A standby generator is wired to your panel and runs on natural gas or propane, so there’s no refueling or extension cords. A home battery is wired in too, often with solar, and switches over without an engine. Both are bigger purchases that need professional installation. Our standby generator picks compare seven Generac, KOHLER and Champion models and what installation adds.
Work out what you need
Start with the list of things you must keep running. Switch them on in the runtime calculator to see the total load, the startup surge and how long each battery size lasts. If no battery size gets you through the outage you’re planning for, that points to a generator, or a generator alongside a battery.
Then compare models: our picks for power stations, solar generators and inverter generators use the same appliance data as the calculator.