How Long Does a 1,000 Wh Power Station Last?

By our math, a 1,000 Wh power station (four of the six we list hold 1,024 Wh) runs a fridge for about 7.3 hours, a CPAP for about 22 hours, and Wi-Fi plus phones for about 25 hours. Each of the six we list can also run a microwave or a space heater, but only for well under an hour in total.

The hours below use 1,024 Wh. To try your own list of things, use Find My Power.

Three words first

• Watt-hours (Wh): how much power a box holds.
• Watts: how fast something uses power. We count a fridge at about 120.
• Surge: a short burst some things need to start, like a fridge motor.

New to this? Start with What is a watt-hour?

How long does a 1000Wh power station last?

Every hour count on this site comes from one line of math:

Hours = watt-hours × 0.85 ÷ watts

Not all of the power reaches your things. Some turns to heat inside the box, so we count 85% of it. On a 1,024 Wh box, that leaves about 870 watt-hours to use.

Device	Watts we count	About how long on 1,024 Wh
Wi-Fi router	15 W	58 hours
Phones	20 W	44 hours
CPAP machine (humidifier off or low)	40 W	22 hours
Lights	40 W	22 hours
Fan	50 W	17 hours
Laptop	65 W	13 hours
TV	100 W	8.7 hours
Refrigerator	120 W	7.3 hours

Estimates. Your devices may use more or less.

More on fridges in how long a power station runs a fridge.

Running several things together

To plug in more than one thing, add the watts of each. The same formula gives the hours:

What is plugged in	Total watts	About how long on 1,024 Wh
Wi-Fi + phones	35 W	25 hours
Wi-Fi + phones + lights	75 W	12 hours
CPAP + Wi-Fi + phones	75 W	12 hours
Fridge + Wi-Fi + phones	155 W	5.6 hours

Estimates. Your devices may use more or less.

On 75 watts, a full 1,024 Wh box lasts about 12 hours, so a CPAP, the router and phones get through an 8-hour night with about a third left. For the CPAP side, see CPAP backup power for outages, and always check the watts with your machine's maker or your equipment provider.

What fits in one full day?

An outage can last longer than a night. Here is a 24-hour test, by our math:

• Wi-Fi and phones all day: 35 watts for 24 hours needs about 990 Wh in the box. A 1,024 Wh box just covers it.
• A fridge all day: 120 watts for 24 hours needs about 3,390 Wh. That is more than three times this size.

So at this size, choose: the fridge for part of a day, or Wi-Fi and phones for a full day. A box of about 2,000 Wh doubles the hours: about 15 hours of fridge by our math.

Big things: what 1,000 Wh can and can't do

The six boxes below each list at least 1,500 watts of output, so by our math each one can run these. The catch is time. From a full 1,024 Wh box:

• Microwave: a 1,000-watt microwave pulls about 1,500 watts, by Honda's generator wattage guide. That is about 35 minutes of cooking in total. Find My Power counts a microwave at 1,100 watts, so it shows more minutes; our microwave guide explains why. The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 lists exactly 1,500 W, so it has no room to spare. See can a power station run a microwave.
• Space heater: we count about 1,500 watts. About 35 minutes. See can a power station run a space heater.

Estimates. Your devices may use more or less.

So a 1,000 Wh box can warm up food a few minutes at a time, but it can't heat a room through an outage. Even a box of about 2,000 Wh runs a space heater for only about 1.2 hours.

The 1,000 Wh boxes we list

We list six boxes at about this size, from 1,024 to 1,152 Wh:

Box	Watt-hours	Watts	Fridge	Wi-Fi + phones	CPAP
Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2	1,024 Wh	2,000 W	about 7.3 hours	about 25 hours	about 22 hours
BLUETTI Elite 100 V2	1,024 Wh	1,800 W	about 7.3 hours	about 25 hours	about 22 hours
EcoFlow DELTA 3	1,024 Wh	1,800 W	about 7.3 hours	about 25 hours	about 22 hours
Jackery HomePower 1000 Plus v2	1,024 Wh	1,800 W	about 7.3 hours	about 25 hours	about 22 hours
Jackery Explorer 1000 v2	1,070 Wh	1,500 W	about 7.6 hours	about 26 hours	about 23 hours
BLUETTI AC180	1,152 Wh	1,800 W	about 8.2 hours	about 28 hours	about 24 hours

Estimates. Your devices may use more or less.

From the smallest box here to the biggest, the fridge time changes by less than one hour. So at this size, pick by watts, outlets and extra batteries, not by hours. We would pick the EcoFlow DELTA 3: EcoFlow lists it at 1,800 W, a 3,600-watt surge, six AC outlets, and room for extra batteries up to 5 kWh. Our DELTA 3 vs C1000 Gen 2 vs Explorer 1000 v2 guide shows the rest, or put any two in Compare.

Who a 1,000 Wh box is for

• Yes: Wi-Fi, phones, lights and a CPAP through a night, or a fridge for about 7 hours.
• No: a fridge through a long outage, or heat for a room. See bigger boxes in Best Picks, or read whole-home backup. For a smaller box, see how long a 768 Wh power station lasts.

If a winter storm outage is your worry, our winter storm checklist shows what to charge first.

Questions people ask

How long will a 1000Wh power station run a refrigerator?

About 7.3 hours by our math on a 1,024 Wh box, for a fridge we count at 120 watts. Check the label inside yours. Each of the six boxes we list here has a surge above the 1,200 watts we count for a fridge to start.

Can a 1000Wh power station run a space heater?

For a short time. We count a space heater at about 1,500 watts, so a full 1,024 Wh box lasts about 35 minutes. The Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 lists 1,500 W of output, so it has nothing to spare.

How many amp-hours is 1000Wh?

It depends on the volts. By our math, 1,024 watt-hours is about 85 amp-hours at 12 volts. EcoFlow's manual lists the DELTA 3 at 20 amp-hours at 51.2 volts: the same power, counted another way. Our amp-hours guide explains why the volts matter.