Home backup · US 120 V
Best power station for a window air conditioner
Every machine below is ranked by a calculation, not by an opinion: whether it can hold a window air conditioner running near-continuously through an outage or a heat wave, whether its brand publishes enough for us to prove how long it lasts, whether it can be bought today, and then price.
Our pick
Yes, it runs it — no proven runtime — see the note see why below ↓
No provable runtime — EcoFlow publishes no usable capacity for this model.
officialverified 2026-08-0112 US records method
EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 — the cheapest record that clears every constraint for this set. No duration is claimed for it: EcoFlow publishes no usable capacity for this model, and a nameplate divided by a load is not a runtime. $2,399, price checked 2026-08-01.
Said plainly, because the panel above cannot: this record’s own 4,096 Wh nameplate puts an absolute ceiling of 5.4 h on this set — short of the 12 h this page ranks against, and that is before any depth-of-discharge or inverter loss is taken off it. It is the recommendation because it is the only record in this library that clears this load at all, not because it can be shown to run it for 12 h. Nothing on this page reaches that target on this set. A cheaper record with this same property would not be named under this pick at all; the pick is held to the standard it holds them to.
Usable energy · not published by this brand
This set, 12 h · draw × duty cycle × hours
The buy link is in the bar at the bottom of the screen — one action per page, and it goes to the merchant we last checked this price at.
The rule is written out under the pick, the load is itemised with its figure’s source, and every row links to the calculator with that machine and this air conditioner already filled in — so you can re-run any number on this page yourself.
How this list is ordered
Four gates, applied in this order to every published US record. There is no score and no weighting — each gate either separates two machines or hands them to the next one.
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1 Does it run the set?
Every record is put through the compatibility engine against all of the loads at once — running watts against continuous output, the worst start-up instant against the surge ceiling, waveform where a load demands one. Green first, then the tight fits, then anything the engine could not read, then the machines that cannot do it. A machine that cannot start the load in front of it is not a cheaper option.
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2 Can we prove how long?
A runtime is only printed where the brand publishes what it takes to compute one — depth of discharge and inverter efficiency — and never from the number on the box. Records that reach the target sort first, records with a proven but shorter figure next (longest first: inside that band none of them does the job, so the one that gets closest wins), and records whose duration cannot be proven at all sort last inside their verdict band. That is a statement about published data, not about the hardware, and each of those rows says so.
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3 Can it be bought today?
A record under a verified out-of-stock policy, or one we may not sell into your state, sorts behind an equivalent one that can be bought. It stays on the list with the reason attached rather than disappearing.
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4 Then price.
Cheapest first, inside everything above. One mains standard and one currency per page, so every comparison is like for like. A record with no verified price sorts to the back of its own band — the absence of a price is not a low price.
The loads this ranks against
A single window or room air conditioner, on its own — the load, not the room it is cooling. This is also the one appliance in this library where the manufacturer nameplate structurally cannot answer the surge question: UL 484, the safety standard plug-in room air conditioners are certified to, does not require a locked-rotor rating on the unit label at all. What this page checks against is the compressor’s own data sheet instead, one level down from the nameplate a reader could otherwise check by hand.
- Running
- 833 W
- Start-up
- 6,900 W
- Duty cycle
- 90%
Derived from official coefficients · verified 2026-08-03 · medium confidence · start-up basis: Nameplate figure
Duty cycle read off this record’s “Commercial setting, outdoor 95°F” profile, which carries the same 90% its default does — the profile is named so the reading is traceable, not because it overrides anything. The figure assumes near-continuous outage duty (90%), a scenario assumption — not a typical-use average or a manufacturer figure.
- Running together
- 833 W
- Worst start-up instant
- 6,900 W
- Average draw
- 750 W
- Energy for 12 h
- 8,996 Wh
Twelve hours, to match the site’s home-backup default. Which duty cycle an outage should assume for a window unit was, until this page’s own data was checked, an open question rather than a missing figure — this site now assumes the conservative, near-continuous reading (not the seasonal average an EnergyGuide label uses), and that is why the table below can, for the first time, print a real number of hours for a window air conditioner at all. It changes less than it sounds: the machines that publish enough to carry that number all fail this load’s electrical check on their own, so their hours never reach the recommendation. The record this page does recommend carries no duration for the ordinary reason — its own brand publishes no depth of discharge or inverter efficiency — not because of anything about this load.
officialverified 2026-08-03appliance records method
All 12 records, ranked
1 of 12 run this set, 3 publish enough for a runtime to be proven, and 9 can be bought today. The percentage is the set as a share of that machine's continuous output; past 82% a verdict drops out of the green.
- 1 EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 EcoFlow · US 120 V 4,000 W continuous · 8,000 W surge ceiling 4,096 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 21%No provable runtime — EcoFlow publishes no usable capacity for this model. 4,096 Wh nameplate — an absolute ceiling of 5.4 h on this set before any conversion loss, not a runtime. $2,399 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 2 BLUETTI Elite 200 V2 BLUETTI · US 120 V 2,600 W continuous 2,073.6 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 32%limited by surge ceiling 2.1 h — from a published usable capacity, with the machine’s own 10 W idle draw in the denominator — assumes near-continuous outage duty (90%), a scenario assumption — not a typical-use average or a manufacturer figure BLUETTI publishes no surge rating for this model. The start-up check runs against its continuous output as a conservative floor — that floor is ours, not a manufacturer specification. $1,099 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 3 BLUETTI Elite 100 V2 BLUETTI · US 120 V 1,800 W continuous · 3,600 W surge ceiling 1,024 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 46%limited by surge ceiling 1.1 h — from a published usable capacity, with the machine’s own 10 W idle draw in the denominator — assumes near-continuous outage duty (90%), a scenario assumption — not a typical-use average or a manufacturer figure $499 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 4 BLUETTI Elite 30 V2 BLUETTI · US 120 V 600 W continuous 288 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 139%limited by continuous output 0.3 h — from a published usable capacity, with the machine’s own 9.0 W idle draw in the denominator — assumes near-continuous outage duty (90%), a scenario assumption — not a typical-use average or a manufacturer figure BLUETTI publishes no surge rating for this model. The start-up check runs against its continuous output as a conservative floor — that floor is ours, not a manufacturer specification. $299 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 5 EcoFlow RIVER 3 Plus EcoFlow · US 120 V 600 W continuous · 1,200 W surge ceiling 286 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 139%limited by continuous output No provable runtime — EcoFlow publishes no usable capacity for this model. 286 Wh nameplate — an absolute ceiling of 0.3 h on this set before any conversion loss, not a runtime. $259 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 6 Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 Jackery · US 120 V 1,500 W continuous · 3,000 W surge ceiling 1,070 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 56%limited by surge ceiling No provable runtime — Jackery publishes no usable capacity for this model. 1,070 Wh nameplate — an absolute ceiling of 1.4 h on this set before any conversion loss, not a runtime. $499 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 7 EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus EcoFlow · US 120 V 1,800 W continuous · 3,600 W surge ceiling 1,024 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 46%limited by surge ceiling No provable runtime — EcoFlow publishes no usable capacity for this model. 1,024 Wh nameplate — an absolute ceiling of 1.3 h on this set before any conversion loss, not a runtime. $689 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 8 Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus Jackery · US 120 V 3,000 W continuous · 6,000 W surge ceiling 2,042.8 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 28%limited by surge ceiling No provable runtime — Jackery publishes no usable capacity for this model. 2,042.8 Wh nameplate — an absolute ceiling of 2.7 h on this set before any conversion loss, not a runtime. $899 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 9 EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max EcoFlow · US 120 V 2,400 W continuous · 4,800 W surge ceiling 2,048 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 35%limited by surge ceiling No provable runtime — EcoFlow publishes no usable capacity for this model. 2,048 Wh nameplate — an absolute ceiling of 2.7 h on this set before any conversion loss, not a runtime. $949 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 10 Jackery Explorer 300 Plus Jackery · US 120 V 300 W continuous · 600 W surge ceiling 288 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 278%limited by continuous output No provable runtime — Jackery publishes no usable capacity for this model. 288 Wh nameplate — an absolute ceiling of 0.3 h on this set before any conversion loss, not a runtime. Verified out of stock on 2026-08-01 — the record page still links to the manufacturer. $299.99 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 11 Jackery Explorer 1000 Plus Jackery · US 120 V 2,000 W continuous · 4,000 W surge ceiling 1,264.6 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 42%limited by surge ceiling No provable runtime — Jackery publishes no usable capacity for this model. 1,264.6 Wh nameplate — an absolute ceiling of 1.6 h on this set before any conversion loss, not a runtime. Verified out of stock on 2026-08-01 — the record page still links to the manufacturer. $999 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
- 12 EcoFlow STREAM Ultra EcoFlow · US 120 V 800 W continuous 1,920 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 104%limited by continuous output No provable runtime — EcoFlow publishes no usable capacity for this model. 1,920 Wh nameplate — an absolute ceiling of 2.5 h on this set before any conversion loss, not a runtime. EcoFlow publishes no surge rating for this model. The start-up check runs against its continuous output as a conservative floor — that floor is ours, not a manufacturer specification. EcoFlow may only sell this model into part of the country, so this site carries no buy link for it. The restriction is the manufacturer’s and is quoted in full on the record page. $1,279 · checked 2026-08-01 Re-run this set on it →
Why 1 record carries no printable runtime
1 of the 12 records here starts and holds this load set and still carries no runtime this page will print, for one reason: EcoFlow publishes no depth of discharge and no inverter efficiency for it, so the hours a reader actually wants cannot be computed from anything but the number on the box — and dividing a nameplate by a load is the one thing this site will not do. The other side of that is BLUETTI: it is the only brand here that publishes both, which is the whole reason every proven runtime above belongs to it. The rule rewarded disclosure, not hardware.
What their rows do carry is the bound: that record’s nameplate over this set’s average draw of 750 W, which is arithmetic anyone can redo against the summary above — floored, never rounded up, so the printed ceiling never claims an hour more than the number supports — and it is printed on every one of those rows. But it is a ceiling and not a duration: it assumes the pack surrenders every watt-hour printed on it and that the inverter loses nothing turning DC into AC, and no battery does either. The real hours sit somewhere below that ceiling, and the two missing figures are exactly what would say how far below. That is the difference between a number this page will print and a number it will not.
The scope of that finding, stated: as of 2026-08-01 we read each manufacturer’s own published documents for these 1 models and found no depth-of-discharge and no inverter-efficiency figure in them. It is a statement about what those documents contained on that date — not a claim that the number exists nowhere. Send us one that is published and the record moves, and the row moves with it. This is a statement about published data, not about the hardware — the verdict column judges that separately, and it comes first.
The load that changes the answer
Add a full-size refrigerator to the same set and the first gate does not move: 1 of the 12 still clears it outright, against 1 on the set above. The reason is one instant: a full-size refrigerator asks for 286 W at start-up on its own — 5.2× its own running draw, against 6,900 W for everything on the list above put together. That start-up figure is a category envelope, not a number this unit’s own manufacturer publishes. The fridge does not cost this list anything further, because whatever was already going to fail here failed on the air conditioner alone — the one machine left standing has more continuous output to spare than most of this library has in total. The quiz carries this set as a preset.
start-up figure: Derived from official coefficients · verified 2026-08-01 · low confidence