Looking to pick one up for short power outage around he house. Charge the phone, laptop, etc. Any recommendations on goto brands, ones to avoid, tips?

Purchase a unit with the LiFePO4 Battery. I picked this one up last month. Power went out 2 weeks ago during a snow storm, it worked perfectly. Purchase a 100 or 200 watt portable solar panel with it also. 5 year warranty and has the LiFePO4 Battery. I have two EBL 100 watt portable solar panels and one portable Renogy 100 watt solar panel. I didn't want to build a power bank as I have minimal time, easier to purchase one complete in my opinion.






I also have the smaller Bluetti and that also comes with the 5 year warranty and the LiFePO4 Battery. Apply the coupon if ordering this unit.






I like the Renogy panel, it has USB & type C ports also. Look for discount coupons on the internet for Renogy, this will save you additional money.

https://www.renogy.com/renogy-100w-portable-solar-panel/

I have a few Bluetti's as well.  They are definitely pricey but top notch.  If you make a list of everything you definitely want to power, we can help you determine the size you need.  From there you can start getting a dollar amount with regards to build your own or buying a pre-made unit.  One of the advantages of having a portable unit is that I can take it with me camping, traveling, etc.  But a bigger advantage is that if one of my friends or family members loses power, I can easily drop one off and they can run their basics.  It's an additional layer.  I live out of my vehicle on the road frequently so a lot of my "at home" back up items are based on 12V portable systems.

My wife has her new "Woolly Bear" camping/utility trailer and it came with a standard deep cycle battery. I will eventually upgrade to a LiFePo4 battery eventually. She just hooked up the solar charger and I got the shore-power controller hooked up. She only has a 100W panel.

Ironically, I just used my Bluetti today. I've had the 800W/716Wh model for over a year and love it (on sale right now). It's not massive capacity but for our remote trips, it's been perfect. The other half of the equation is their 200W folding solar panels. With good sun exposure, I can charge the battery in from almost dead to full in about 4-5 hours.




ROCK6

Buy a kill-a-watt meter if you are going to try to run appliances off of one.

Then use the meter to figure out the normal usage, then figure out the worst possible case and use the meter to figure out how much it will be then.

Then decide on the power station.


As an example, I used the meter during the spring when it was cool to figure out what my deep freezer in the garage would use per day.  It was .62 kwhr.

I tried it again during summer (95 degree days) and the results weren't even close to spring.  It was using 2 kwhr in the summer.

For pre-built units, you should shop for Bluetti, EcoFlow, Pecron, and Anker. They each have slightly different feature sets and each manufacturer has sales on one or more of their units all the time. Pick which ones have the features you most like and keep an eye out for sales. I managed to score one of the Pecron E1500LFP units on a really good Black Friday deal and like it a lot. My only complaint is that their app doesn't let me dial back the charging current. I like doing that because it increases the longevity of the batteries. The EcoFlow unit and its app lets me do that. Also, if you plan to use solar panels, check what your power usage will be vs the amount of solar power the units will accept. If you're planning to use 800W and the unit only accepts 200W of solar input, you're going to have a hard time keeping the battery charged up.

Solar panels seem to have a similar bent. I've gotten Dokio, AllPowers, and a couple others I can't remember. Each manufacturer has a lineup of different wattage units. And, they too have rotating sales on specific panels in their lineup. The most recent one I got was an AllPowers 600W folding unit. It's pretty big but actually a lot lighter than 400W units I've seen and is about the same weight as the 300W Dokio I bought a year or so ago. Note that connectors are something you need to keep an eye on as well. Some power stations like MC4, some like XT60, some like Anderson Powerpoles.

As for building your own setup, I haven't done a lot of that but what I have done has been with Renogy components. Pricey but they seem to just work without a lot of painful setup/configuration crap. I stopped buying their LiFePO4 batteries because there are much, much less expensive equivalent batteries available now with decent quality.

If all you want to do is charge some phones and a laptop, look at something in the 250-300 watt hour range. If you want to run a fridge for a few hours, look at something in the 700-1,000 watt hour range.

Understand the difference between output maximum s of just “watts” vs storage capacity of “watt hours.”

LifePo4 batteries will last thousands and thousands of cycles. Lithium Ion will last about 800.

If you want something to power the fridge and tv and fans for a day or more, that’s when looking at building your own system is worth it. In my opinion, it doesn’t make sense to build your own system for anything less than 2,000 watt hours. The power stations have become such a good deal, that you will have a hard time building more for less.

Wrapping up, without knowing what you want to power and for how long, along with a budget, we’re all just taking shot in the dark.

If you’re looking at brands:

Eco Flow
Bluetti
Percon for budget

I used one of these during a seven day power outage a couple of weeks ago. Worked good to power a gas heater though the night for nine hours. In the morning started the generator back up to run the heater and charge battery pack back up. Takes close to nine hours to recharge it. I'm happy with it. And goal zero has came out with some new stuff in the last few weeks.    https://www.goalzero.com/collections/portable-power-stations/products/goal-zero-yeti-1000-core

Bluetti produces some really nice units.  I have a 2000 watt unit that has been great.

This

Pecron still has sales going on Amazon right now.

About the best deals for kWh per $.

I got their E2000LFP from the sale (an arfcommer posted an add-on coupon that knocked off an additional $75). The EB3000 Expansion Battery is also on sale, if you want to bump it up to ~5,000 - 8,000 WH.











One of the nice features is that it has dual 600w solar inputs, for a maximum solar charging input of 1,200 watts. While there are a couple of units that can handle more, they’re significantly more expensive per kWh.

The Ecoflow Delta Pro is 3,600Wh for $2700 vs the Pecron sale with the E2000LFP + EB3000 coming in at ~$2000 for 5,000Wh.

Renogy has a 4,800Wh unit for $3500, that can take up to 4,400 watts of solar.

I have a Jackery 500, and their 100w panel.  Package was about $750.

It does the job for what you are asking for, and for our needs.

However, the panel is not waterproof and is very light.  You have to strap it down if it's windy.

I believe there are better units, I think other companies have a better battery that is replaceable.  Once this battery is done the battery pack itself is dead.

I just did a test of my E1500LFP just now with the XT60 DC output it has. Was 13.52V. Supposedly the port is rated for 30A. That's plenty for my 100W ham radios. If the wind weren't blowing 50-60mph today, I would have been testing out the whole setup. Awfully hard to keep a long, skinny portable antenna from blowing over in that kind of wind.

Supposedly, Pecron was going to be coming out with a 3600Wh unit first quarter this year. Haven't seen anything yet. Maybe they're re-evaluating how they're going to compete against the EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra.

Also, the E2000LFP has two of the 600W ports the E1500LFP has one of (but it's 700W). So, 1,200W for the E2000, 700W for the E1500. I'd originally planned to get the E2000 but then the E1500 came out and had that 30A 12V XT60 output so I went with that. I'd bought that 600W folding solar panel figuring I'd buy a second to charge that E2000. It works with the 1500 though so it's all good.

I have an Ecoflow Delta 2, 1024 wH.  1800w ac output.  So far, so good.  I've used it a few times during power outages.  I bought it w/ a couple 100w solar panels for $700ish last year.

ETA:  Jackery 1000 w power station is on sale on Woot, as is a foldable 100w solar panel.

Power Station

Solar panel

There might be better deals on foldable solar panels out there, I haven't looked.

Agreed.

My current setup:

As time goes on, and more options exist it's getting harder to recommend a specific other than the primary name brands.  There are thousands of options all with different specs all with different price ranges.   JMHO.

thank you gentlemen, I appreciate all the info.

Is there any reason for me to buy p04 battery over the lithium ion? I know the p04 will last longer, but if I'm charging it up and its sitting in the corner, being used a couple times a year, will I ever kill the batteries anyway?

The number of charge-discharge-charge cycles a LiFePO4 battery can deal with is much, much higher than li-ion cylindrical cells, like 4000 vs 500 depending on depth of discharge. LiFePO4 cells also tend to be able to both discharge at higher rates and charge at higher rates than li-ion. And, most importantly, LiFePO4 batteries are much less volatile and much less subject to thermal runaway. It's why most power station manufacturers have shifted to LiFePO4.