backup
Portable power station vs inverter generator
A suitcase battery versus a quiet gas inverter: what each actually runs, how many hours you get, Ready.gov placement, and when you still want a standby or a wall pack.
You are not shopping a pad-mounted standby. You are shopping the thing you can carry: a battery in a box that you plug the fridge into, or a small gas inverter that sits outside and feeds a cord. They look similar in the ads, and they do different jobs. One is a tank of kilowatt-hours. The other is an engine that makes watts as long as you have fuel and you keep the exhaust out of the house.
If the real question is a quiet wall pack versus a generator on a pad, start with battery vs standby generator. If the outage is days of ice and you already know you want gas, sizing a standby is the kilowatt list. Stay here when the cart is a suitcase.
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What does each machine actually do?
Portable power station. A lithium battery (often LiFePO4) plus an inverter, with AC outlets on the case. You charge it from the wall before the storm, or from solar if you bought panels. Runtime is the watt-hours in the pack divided by what you plug in. No exhaust, so it can sit indoors. When it is empty, it is empty until you recharge it.
A common 1 kWh-class example is EcoFlow’s DELTA 2: 1,024 Wh, 1,800 W AC continuous on the listing, LiFePO4 with 3,000+ cycles, about 27 lb. A fridge that averages 150 watts is roughly 3.6 kWh in a day, so one of these is a night of fridge-and-phones, not a three-day ice storm, unless you can recharge it.
Inverter generator. A gasoline (sometimes propane) engine with an inverter so the power is clean enough for electronics, quieter than a construction-site portable. Honda’s EU2200i is the size a lot of people actually mean: 1,800 W rated, 2,200 W max, 48 to 57 dBA, 47.4 lb dry, 0.95 gal tank, 3.2 hours at rated load and 8.1 hours at quarter load.
It still makes carbon monoxide. Ready.gov wants generators outdoors and at least 20 feet from windows, doors, and attached garages, with CO detectors on every level. A quiet inverter does not get a garage pass.
What do these cost?
HomeGuide puts a portable generator at $500 to $2,500 for the unit, or $900 to $4,000 if you connect it to the house through a listed inlet and transfer method. Angi lists portable units in the $500 to $2,000 band for about 1 to 7.5 kW.
Angi: whole-house generator cost
Street prices on suitcase batteries bounce with sales. Treat the Amazon cards as the product class, not as a locked-in number. A 1 kWh station and a 2,200 W inverter often land in the same few hundred to about $1,200 neighborhood. That is still a different product than EnergySage’s $15,647 typical wall battery for 13.5 kWh, or HomeGuide’s $6,000 to $11,000 standby install.
Connecting the gas unit to house circuits is an electrician: inlet box, a listed interlock or transfer switch, and the 30-amp vs 50-amp cord that matches. A power station does not get an inlet. You plug the fridge into the box, or you buy a listed transfer product that the manufacturer actually rates for that station. A cord in the dryer outlet is still the wrong answer.
How many hours do I actually get?
Write the hours on paper before you pick a brand.
Fridge at 150 watts average is 3.6 kWh a day. Add 100 watts of internet and lights for 16 hours and you are near 5 kWh. A 1,024 Wh station, after inverter losses, is a slice of that day. Two stations, or an extra battery, or a way to recharge, is how you get to morning.
The Honda at quarter load is 8.1 hours on less than a gallon. That is phones, a fridge compressor cycling, and a few LEDs if you are honest. At 1,800 watts continuous it is 3.2 hours, and you will not run a fridge at 1,800 watts anyway, so fuel is the runtime. A second gas can in the shed is the second night, as long as you can store it legally and you are home to refill.
A well pump starting watts will eat an 1,800 W inverter even if the running watts look fine. Same for a window AC. Size surge first. The 13.5 kWh wall pack on usable kWh is the product when you want hours without standing outside. These two suitcases are the product when you want to spend hundreds, not tens of thousands.
If a medical device is why you are shopping, put watts and hours on the house-side outage plan before you pick a color of case.
What should three setups mean?
Setup A, indoor night. 1 kWh-class power station, charged on the wall, fridge and phones plugged into the box. No exhaust. When it dies at 4 a.m., you wait for sun, a car charger, or the utility. This is the four-hour tree-on-the-line outage.
Setup B, outdoor inverter plus a listed hookup. Honda-class 1,800 W, or a bigger inverter if the fridge and the furnace blower need to run together. Outdoors, 20 feet out, CO detectors in the house. Either extension cords to a few appliances, or an inlet and interlock so you are not feeding the grid. Fuel in a can you can actually carry. This is the overnight plus the next afternoon if you refill.
Setup C, both. Station indoors for the silent hours and the electronics. Small inverter outside to recharge the station or to run the fridge while the pack fills. That pair is often cheaper than a 3 kWh expandable suitcase sold as a week of ice, and it is still not a standby.
A conventional (non-inverter) 7,500 W portable is louder and dirtier power. It can start more motors. It is the dual-fuel storm machine, not this comparison. If that is what you want, you are off this cart and onto a heavier unit plus the inlet.
What has to be on the shopping list?
- Write the watts you will run at once, and the surge when the fridge or the well starts.
- Match watt-hours or tank hours to the outage you actually had last time, not the one in the ad.
- Keep the battery inside and the engine outside, 20 feet from openings, with CO detectors on every level.
- Decide how you will recharge or refuel on night two before you click buy.
- Use a listed transfer path if anything goes into house wiring. Cords to appliances do not need a panel, and a panel needs an electrician.
- Pick a weight you can actually carry down the basement stairs, because 47 lb and 27 lb are different from 130 lb.
How does this go wrong?
You buy a 500 Wh camping pack, plug in a fridge, and it lasts 90 minutes.
You run the Honda in the garage with the door cracked. Ready.gov treats that as carbon monoxide.
You backfeed a dryer outlet. Use a listed inlet instead, because people still do this.
The power station is sold as unlimited because of solar. The panel is not in the box, it is cloudy, and the pack is empty at dusk.
You size 1,800 W running and forget the well’s locked-rotor amps.
A 2026 bid for a wall battery still subtracts the federal 25D credit. These suitcases never had that credit. Do not mix the products.
How do I decide this week?
- Write down the longest outage you had in five years, in hours, and whether you were home to refuel.
- List fridge, internet, medical devices, and well on one card with watts, using the critical-load idea even if you will only use cords.
- If the job is one night of fridge and phones, price a 1 kWh-class station and keep it charged.
- If the job is two nights and you can stand outside, price an 1,800 W-class inverter, an outdoor spot 20 feet from openings, and the inlet if you want house circuits.
- If a well, a heat pump, or a multi-day ice storm is the real fear, stop this cart and compare a standby or solar plus battery against the same list.
- Do not put a cord in the dryer outlet, and do not start the engine indoors.