Home backup · US 120 V
Best power station for home backup
Ranked by a calculation, not an opinion. Gate one: the loads people run during an outage. A bigger ENERGY STAR fridge can use more — 658 kWh a year against 410.
Our pick
Yes, it runs it 15 h see why below ↓
from a published usable capacity, with the machine’s own 10 W idle draw in the denominator
Derived from official coefficients + Derived by WattPairverified 2026-08-0112 US records method
The bar under usable energy: this set draws 72% of it over 12 h.
BLUETTI Elite 200 V2 — the cheapest of the 2 records whose published usable capacity can be shown to carry this set through 12 h — 15 h, with the machine’s own idle draw already in the denominator. $899, price checked 2026-08-17.
Usable energy · Derived from official coefficients · verified 2026-08-01
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.
Every row opens the calculator, pre-filled, each figure below sourced — re-run any number yourself.
How this list is ordered
Four gates, in this order: does it run the set, can we prove how long, can it be bought today, then price. No score and no weighting.
The four gates in full
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 — a usable-capacity coefficient, whether stated as depth of discharge and inverter efficiency or as one combined figure — 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. Whether WattPair happens to hold a purchase link for a record is not part of this gate and never moves it: a machine we cannot link to is ranked exactly as if we could, and simply carries no buy button.
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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
Why this set, and where its figures come from
A full-size refrigerator, four LED bulbs, the router and modem, and one laptop. It is the set the sizing quiz calls “the fridge and the phones”, and it is a product judgement rather than a data claim — what a household actually keeps alive when the power goes, in the order it matters. Every figure attached to those loads comes from their own records.
- Running
- 55 W
- Start-up
- 286 W
- Duty cycle
- 85%
Derived from official coefficients · verified 2026-08-01 · low confidence · start-up basis: Category envelope
LED light bulb × 4
- Running
- 8.5 W
- Start-up
- none found
- Duty cycle
- 100%
Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 · high confidence · start-up basis: None found
- Running
- 9.1 W
- Start-up
- none found
- Duty cycle
- 100%
Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 · high confidence · start-up basis: None found
- Running
- 5.2 W
- Start-up
- 5,750 Wreported only
- Duty cycle
- 100%
Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 · high confidence · start-up basis: Manufacturer-stated
- Running together
- 103 W
- Worst start-up instant
- 334 W
- Average draw
- 95 W
- Energy for 12 h
- 1,141 Wh
Why 12 hours
One night. It is the duration most people plan the first purchase around, and it is the quiz’s own default, so the two surfaces answer the same question. Longer and shorter targets change the order — the link under the list re-runs it.
Derived by WattPairverified 2026-08-01appliance records method
One inrush figure is reported and never enforced
A switching power supply charges its input capacitors the instant it is plugged in, and that spike can be large — but it lasts a few line cycles, two orders of magnitude shorter than the second-scale event a station’s surge rating describes. The two are not the same quantity, so this site reports the figure and never fails a verdict on it. It is not in the start-up total above, and that is not an omission.
Applies to: Laptop computer
No start-up figure has been found for some of these loads
We have found no published inrush figure for these loads. This library does not invent one. They are electronics rather than motors, so there is no rotor to break free and no reason to expect one; the engine says so rather than assuming a number in either direction.
Applies to: LED light bulb, Router + modem
The start-up figure that decides this set is a category envelope
We have found no published inrush figure for this class. The multiple this site uses is therefore a category envelope drawn from standards tables: deliberately conservative, and not a measurement of any particular unit. A verdict held back by it may well be fine in practice — we will not say so until a manufacturer does. It is also 286 W of the 334 W start-up total above, so the start-up check on this whole page turns on it.
Applies to: Full-size refrigerator
All 12 US records, ranked
12 of the 12 US records we publish run this set, 7 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 BLUETTI Elite 200 V2 BLUETTI · US 120 V 2,600 W continuous 2,073.6 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 Runs it4.0%
- 2 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 Runs it3.4%
- 3 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 Runs it5.2%
- 4 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 Runs it5.7%
- 5 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 Runs it6.9%
- 6 BLUETTI Elite 30 V2 BLUETTI · US 120 V 600 W continuous 288 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 Runs it17%
- 7 Jackery Explorer 300 Plus Jackery · US 120 V 300 W continuous · 600 W surge ceiling 288 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 Runs it34%
- 8 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 Runs it17%
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Photo shows the EU 230V version — page specs are US 120V. 9 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 Runs it5.7% - 10 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 Runs it4.3%
- 11 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 Runs it2.6%
- 12 EcoFlow STREAM Ultra EcoFlow · US 120 V 800 W continuous 1,920 Wh nameplate · Official spec · verified 2026-08-01 Runs it13%
Why 5 records rank below machines they out-spec
5 of the 12 records here start and hold this load set and still rank below machines they out-spec, for one reason: we have found no depth of discharge and no inverter efficiency published by EcoFlow for them, 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 and Jackery: they are the only brands here that publish both, which is the whole reason every proven runtime above belongs to them. 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 95 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 2026-08-08 we read each manufacturer’s own published documents for these 5 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 portable air conditioner to the same set and the first gate stops being a formality: not one of the 12 clears it outright — 1 is a tight fit and 11 cannot do it at all. The reason is one instant: a portable air conditioner asks for 7,800 W at start-up on its own — 6× its own running draw, against 334 W for everything on the list above put together. That start-up figure is a published locked-rotor rating for a compressor of this class, borrowed from a comparable unit rather than read off this one’s own nameplate. Cooling one room is the decision that changes which machine you need, and it is worth making before you choose the machine rather than after. The quiz carries this set as a preset.
start-up figure: Derived from official coefficients · verified 2026-08-01 · medium confidence
The other rankings
Where to go next
Questions people ask about this list
Do all 12 of them really run it?
Would a newer, more efficient refrigerator change the answer?
Pricing, ranking and how the site is funded are not questions about this list — they are the same on every page here, and they are set out in full in the price policy and how the money works.