What Size Power Station Do I Need for Camping?

Power station sizing is a three-step problem. First, list the appliances you actually plan to run. Second, multiply each by realistic daily hours to get watt-hours per day. Third, multiply by trip length and apply a margin. Three minutes of arithmetic saves $300 of buying the wrong band.

Step 1 - List every load and its hours per day

The single highest-value thing you can do before shopping is to write down what you actually plan to run, what each device pulls in watts, and how many hours per day it runs. This table is the camping-power-sizing version of running a load calc. The numbers below cover the gear vehicle campers run most often, and in almost every setup the fridge is the largest single line.

Ranges are conservative middle-of-the-road values, not best-case manufacturer claims. Fridge duty cycle varies with ambient temperature, how often the lid opens, and insulation - measure your own once you have a Kill-A-Watt or a station with a real-time power readout.

Step 2 - Do the math, then add 25 percent margin

Add up your daily watt-hours and multiply by trip length in days. That gives you the total energy budget. Then divide by your usable capacity per cycle (90 percent of gross for LiFePO4, 80 percent for NMC) and apply a 20-30 percent margin for cloudy days, inverter losses, and the cold-weather discount.

Required gross capacity = (daily Wh × trip days) / (usable% × recharge factor)

Worked example A - weekend with a 60L fridge

A couple takes a 3-night weekend in a Subaru Outback with a 60L 12V fridge, a roof fan, two laptops, and string lights:

• Fridge: 450 Wh/day × 3 = 1,350 Wh
• Fan (medium): 180 Wh/day × 3 = 540 Wh
• 2 laptops, full charge each day: 180 Wh/day × 3 = 540 Wh
• Lights: 30 Wh/day × 3 = 90 Wh
• Total trip energy: ~2,520 Wh over 3 days

With one 200W solar panel delivering ~500 Wh per day on a good summer day, the battery only has to cover the gap: roughly 2,520 - 1,500 = 1,020 Wh of stored energy. Divide by 90 percent usable (LFP) and add 25 percent margin: ~1,400 Wh of gross capacity - which lines up with a 1,000-1,500 Wh mid-tier station like the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2, EcoFlow Delta 2, or Bluetti AC180. See the buying guide for picks in that band.

Worked example B - week-long base camp with induction

Two campers stay at one site for 7 days in a truck-bed setup with the same 60L fridge, a fan, lights, laptops, plus an induction burner for one meal per day:

• Fridge: 500 Wh/day × 7 = 3,500 Wh
• Fan: 200 Wh/day × 7 = 1,400 Wh
• Laptops + cameras: 200 Wh/day × 7 = 1,400 Wh
• Lights: 40 Wh/day × 7 = 280 Wh
• Induction (30 min/day): 700 Wh/day × 7 = 4,900 Wh
• Total trip energy: ~11,500 Wh over 7 days

Even with 400W of solar delivering ~1,500 Wh per day, you still need ~1,000 Wh per day of stored backup energy. Across 7 days that is ~7,000 Wh of stored energy capacity needed, which is well into dual-battery LiFePO4 build territory or a 3,600 Wh portable plus an expansion battery. At this load, a permanent install is almost always cheaper per usable watt-hour - see the lithium battery guide.

Step 3 - Pick a capacity band

With a daily watt-hour target in hand, the band almost picks itself. Use this as the quick sanity check before shopping a specific brand.

These bands assume LiFePO4 chemistry and at least one recharge source (solar or shore power). NMC stations need ~10 percent more rated capacity to deliver the same usable energy.

Typical trip patterns at a glance

If you do not want to run the arithmetic yourself, find the row that most resembles your trip. These daily totals come from the appliance table above, applied to the trip patterns most car campers actually run.

How much solar you can actually expect

Solar marketing assumes ideal conditions: perfect angle, no shade, clear sky, room temperature. Real-world delivery is typically 50-70 percent of rated panel wattage over a full day. Use this rule of thumb:

Daily solar Wh ≈ rated panel W × 4.5 sun hours × 0.7 loss factor

• 100W panel: ~315 Wh per day in good summer conditions, ~150-200 Wh in mixed cloud.
• 200W panel: ~630 Wh per day in good summer conditions, ~300-450 Wh in mixed cloud.
• 400W panel: ~1,260 Wh per day in good summer conditions, ~600-900 Wh in mixed cloud.

Two real-world factors shrink that further: panel angle (folding panels lying flat can lose 20-30 percent over a tilted setup) and partial shade (one shaded cell can drop a string panel's output by 50 percent until the shade clears). Plan for a worse day than you think you will have.

Alternator and DC-DC charging

On road-trip itineraries, driving is the most reliable recharge source. The catch is that a stock cigarette socket caps near 100W of input on most portable stations because of the 10A circuit, the connector resistance, and the protective limits the station enforces. A wired DC-DC charger bypasses that limit and can push 300-500W or more into a station with a compatible input.

For drivers covering 100+ km per day, a DC-DC charger consistently outperforms even a 400W solar panel. For drivers who park for days at a time, solar wins. Most long-trip vehicle campers eventually run both.

Cold-weather adjustments

Two things change in shoulder-season and winter camping. First, LiFePO4 chemistry should not be charged below 0C (32F) - the cells suffer permanent damage, and most modern stations disable charging at that temperature to protect themselves. Stations with built-in low-temperature charging heaters (some recent EcoFlow and Bluetti models, including the Delta 2 Max and AC180T) handle this automatically; older or budget stations do not. The conservative answer is to keep the unit inside the tent or vehicle overnight in cold weather, and to check the charging temperature range before buying for a winter rig.

Second, fridges run less in cold ambient (good), but laptops, lights, and heated blankets run more (bad). Net effect for most vehicle campers is roughly a wash on total daily Wh, but the capacity buffer goes from 20 percent to 30 percent because of slower solar yield and shorter sun hours.

For heater choices and the rest of the cold-weather setup, see the heating and cooling hub.

Common sizing mistakes

1. Buying for gross capacity instead of usable. A 1,000 Wh LFP station delivers roughly 800-900 Wh of usable trip energy after depth-of-discharge and inverter losses. Buyers who size to gross capacity routinely run out of power on night two of a trip the spec sheet said should easily clear three nights.
2. Sizing for the average appliance instead of the loudest one. An undersized inverter clips coffee makers, induction burners, and hair dryers even when the battery has plenty of energy left. Match the inverter ceiling to the single loudest appliance you will run.
3. Ignoring recharge time. A 3,000 Wh station that refills slowly from a wall outlet (3-4 hours) and slowly from solar (200W ceiling) is the wrong answer for a road tripper who relocates daily. The 1,000 Wh mid station that refills in 60 minutes is often better at the same trip pattern.
4. Not planning a second recharge source. Solar alone fails on the third cloudy day. The cleanest insurance is a DC-DC charger for driving days and shore power compatibility for occasional hookups.
5. Buying a portable when a permanent install is the right answer. Above 2,000 Wh of daily need or once an install can live in one vehicle, dual battery LiFePO4 is usually cheaper per usable Wh, charges faster from the alternator, and lasts longer.

Where to go next

Once you have a watt-hour target, the highest-value next move is either to check it against the calculator or to jump straight to the buying guide if you already know your band.

• Power station sizing calculator - the same math, run interactively, with solar and cold-weather variables
• Best portable power station for camping - specific picks, grouped by capacity band
• Jackery vs EcoFlow vs Bluetti - the three biggest brands compared at each band
• Lithium battery for RV, van, and truck camping - if a permanent install makes more sense than a portable
• Off-grid power hub - all power-related guides and reviews
• Camping food without refrigeration - decide whether you need the fridge that drives most of this math
• Car camping checklist - where power sits in the full packing list