During an outage, keeping the refrigerator, internet and a few lights alive is a very different problem from powering the whole house. A carefully sized 1–2kWh portable power station can often cover this essential-load plan, but runtime depends on the refrigerator’s duty cycle and outage length.
Calculate your refrigerator + internet + lighting backup plan →
Start with the refrigerator
The refrigerator is usually the largest energy user in this group and has a compressor startup surge. Use the label or a plug-in energy meter when possible. Our calculator uses a screening estimate only until you enter actual watts.
Internet load
A modem/ONT plus Wi-Fi router is normally a small continuous load compared with a refrigerator, but it may run 24 hours a day. Include both devices if your internet service requires both.
Lighting load
LED lighting is relatively inexpensive in energy terms. During a long outage, powering a few strategic LED lamps instead of whole-room lighting can preserve battery capacity for refrigeration and communications.
How much battery capacity?
For this load mix, daily energy matters more than simply adding nameplate watts. A refrigerator cycles, while internet equipment may run continuously. Use the Backup Power Map to estimate watt-hours, inverter losses and reserve for one or more outage days.
1kWh or 2kWh?
A 1kWh-class system can be appropriate for a shorter essential-load plan when actual consumption is modest and recharge is available. A 2kWh-class system provides more margin for overnight operation, longer outages or additional devices. See our 2kWh home-backup guide.
Current comparison paths
For compact systems, compare Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 vs BLUETTI Elite 100 V2. For larger plans, compare EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max vs BLUETTI AC200L.
Check BLUETTI AC200L price & availability →
Affiliate disclosure: WhenGridFails may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Recommendations are based on technical load fit first.