Your freezer full of food, your well pump, your communications — in a long outage, preserving power is preserving everything else. The good news: solar generators and battery banks have gotten dramatically better and cheaper in the last few years.
Start With Our Comparison
Best Solar Generators for Home Backup (2026) — the EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max, Bluetti Elite 200 V2, and Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 compared on specs, price, and owner feedback. Our top pick: the DELTA 2 Max (9/10), for its fast solar charging and room to grow later.
Solar Generators (Power Stations)
A battery, an inverter, and solar input in one box. No fuel, no fumes, no noise — safe to run indoors. The specs that matter:
- Capacity (Wh) — what it can store; a 1,000Wh unit runs a full-size fridge for roughly 8–12 hours
- Output (W) — what it can power at once; check surge ratings for motors and compressors
- Recharge speed — both from wall and solar; slow recharge is the most common disappointment
- Battery chemistry — LiFePO4 lasts 3,000+ cycles vs. ~500 for older lithium-ion; worth the premium
- Expandability — can you add battery packs later as needs grow?
Battery Banks & Deep-Cycle Batteries
For bigger or permanent setups: LiFePO4 deep-cycle batteries paired with your own inverter and panels. More work to assemble, far more capacity per dollar.
What Will It Actually Run?
Start with the size calculator below to add up your own loads — fridge, freezer, well pump, medical gear, radios — then see how the three big 2,000Wh stations stack up in our comparison: which one runs a fridge longest, and which charges back up fastest from solar.
Size Yours First
Before you shop, run your own numbers: our Power Station Size Calculator adds up the running watts, starting surge, and daily watt-hours of the appliances you actually own — and tells you which size class to look at.
Fuel Storage (The Other Half)
For gas generators: stabilized fuel keeps 1–2 years, propane keeps indefinitely. Rotation schedules and stabilizer comparisons coming.
Next up in this hub: portable gas and dual-fuel generators compared — the fuel half of the backup-power picture.