Best power bank for house

[ChillinwiththeVillains]

I am thinking we should buy one but would appreciate recommendations as they seem quite expensive. Apologies if there is an existing thread. I tried searching but MN search is a pain.

@TheNoonBell recommended this set up www.amazon.co.uk/ALLPOWERS-Portable-Generator-Foldable-Emergency/dp/B0B42BNT7S.

Been mulling it over myself. I've tried to set as many things as possible that don't need electricity- heat, light and cooking. My only problem is refrigerated stuff. I go for shelf stable options. But I know that I need something. So I thought about something like the above and a mini fridge for an emergency.

Oh that’s interesting. Thank you for linkinf

It's a 100W panel and a 300W battery. So in absolute perfect condition would take 3 hours to fill up the battery. In reality more like all day on a sunny day.

The battery in turn is 288Wh so could power just under ten 30W light bulbs for an hour. Or a 2KW fan heater for 10 minutes.

All for £390 - save your money!

Ecoflow or Jackery I would say. You get what you pay for in terms of KW. It would be better to save up for a good piece of kit rather than spend on something that will hardly power a lightbulb in my opinion.

A camping cool box will use less power too, often they come with an ac and 12v adaptor, useful for keeping milk cold. If it’s cold outside just put stuff outside rather than running a fridge

Anker are a good brand. Between me and dp we have a bit of a collection now.

I don’t know the answer but agree that i find the brand Anker a good one (certainly for our phone chargers and earphones!)

It's worth thinking what you want it to do, and for how long.

We are planning for power cuts of around 24 hours, maybe up to 48, in the winter. If you want to prepare for longer power cuts you prob want something different to us.

We looked at power banks with over 500Wh power storage, that deliver over 300W power (I think those are the correct units!). This suited our objectives of charging phones and tablets, and being able to plug in an LED lamp and router.

If we got over 500W power we could also plug in a travel kettle, however this would use up lots of the energy stored so we would preferentially heat water a different way.

If we got one that delivers 1000W power we could use it to power the microwave and pressure cooker too, but we decided this wasn't necessary for our objectives. This would have doubled the price, and we just felt it wasn't worth it for us.

If you are wanting to prepare for longer power cuts you may need to consider a larger power storage, or something completely different.

We are wanting to be ready for power cuts in winter, so we haven't bought a solar panel.

Would a 500w one power a desktop pc for a small number of hours?

I think so - but please check this! I read that a 500W one could power a 150W fridge for 3-6 hours. A desktop pc I think is about 200W. So I think it could power that for a few hours. But I'm new to this so please do check. When I was browsing I saw quite a few with examples of what it can power and for how long.

Thank you!

I have a small one with an AC socket which I use to power my router in a power cut.
I have others for other stuff as my house isn't connected into solar.

My router is in an awkward place as the only phone point in the house is weirdly in one of the bedrooms so there are good uses for small scale battery banks that can power odd low usage things.

There is a handy little table to give you an idea of average power usage on things in your home here

www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/guidance/safety-around-the-home/home-appliances-ratings

It's worth buying one of those little gadgets that measures how much your appliances use so you know for sure what you need from a power bank before you buy it & can work out how long it would last for the actual use you intend rather than just guessing.

Most of the smaller ones only have one or two sockets & you can trash them if you plug in an extension lead then load it up with too much stuff.
Sometimes, less is more.