Power station or generator: which do you actually need?
This is the decision that comes before choosing a product, and it is the expensive one to get wrong in either direction. A battery bought for a well pump is wasted money; a standby generator bought to keep a router alive is a great deal more of it.
Two questions settle it. First, does anything you need to power lack a plug? A furnace blower, a well pump and a sump pump are wired into the building, and no portable box can reach them without transfer equipment fitted by a licensed electrician. Second, how many days? A battery holds a fixed amount of energy and then stops until you recharge it; a generator runs as long as you keep feeding it. If every critical load has a plug and the outage is measured in hours, buy a battery. If either answer goes the other way, you are into generator and transfer-switch territory.
The two questions that decide it
Every path here is judged against the same question: what has to stay on, and for how long. If you have not answered that yet, run the planner first. It will tell you the wattage and energy you are actually shopping for, as a range, and it is worth doing before you look at a single product.
The first question is whether anything you need lacks a plug. If it has a plug, you can run it from a power station or a generator's outlet today, with an extension cord and no help from anyone. If it is wired into your house, no portable box can reach it without transfer equipment installed by a licensed electrician. The furnace blower, the well pump and the sump pump are the usual wired-in three. If your critical loads all have plugs, the whole project stays inside a weekend.
The second question is how many days. A battery holds a fixed amount of energy: when the stored energy is gone it stops until you recharge it from mains, solar or a car. A generator is bounded by fuel and refuelling instead, so it lasts as long as you keep feeding it. Hours to a day is battery country. Days is a fuel question, or a solar one.
The five paths at a glance
Five paths cover almost every household. The column that settles most arguments is the third one: a battery lasts a fixed time and then stops, while an engine lasts as long as the fuel does.
Installation is the other dividing line. Two of these you can buy and use the same afternoon. The rest involve a licensed electrician, and usually a permit and an inspection, because they touch your breaker panel or your house wiring. That work is not optional and there is no informal version of it.
| Path | Runs indoors | Installation | How long it lasts | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plug-in battery power station | Yes | Not required | Fixed | Plugged-in loads for hours to a day |
| Portable generator | Outdoor only | Not required | As long as you keep feeding it | Sustained high wattage, longer outages |
| Portable generator with a transfer switch | Outdoor only | Electrician | Same as the generator | Hardwired loads: furnace, well, sump |
| Standby generator | Outdoor only | Electrician | Effectively unlimited on natural gas; bounded by the tank on propane | Frequent or long outages, or nobody home to start a portable |
| Battery with solar recharge | Yes | None for portable panels; electrician for a fixed system | Extendable rather than fixed | Multi-day outages, no fuel access, silent and indoors |
The five paths, judged on where they can run, what has to be installed, how long they last, and the job each one is for.
Plug-in battery power station
A battery in a box with normal sockets on it. Nothing to install: charge it, then plug appliances into it. There is no combustion and no exhaust, so it can sit in the kitchen or beside the bed.
Who it is for: most households whose honest answer to what must stay on is the fridge, the internet and a few lights. It runs a router, phones, lamps, a laptop, a CPAP, and a fridge for a while, which is to say anything with a normal plug, within its wattage limit. The sizes we list run from 192 watt-hours to 6,438 watt-hours. The smallest keeps a router and phones going; the largest is home-backup class.
Who it is not for: anything wired into your house, anything needing 240V, and heavy continuous loads like central air. Capacity is the constraint people underestimate, and starting watts is the one that actually trips them. A fridge compressor can pull several times its running wattage for a moment.
Portable generator
An engine on wheels. Far more power than a battery, but it burns fuel and it has to live outside. The units we list run from 3,200 watts to 9,500 watts, and generators are sized on watts rather than watt-hours, because runtime is a fuel question.
Who it is for: longer outages, rural properties, well pumps, and anyone who needs sustained high wattage. It carries the loads a battery cannot hold, including multiple large appliances, power tools and, with the right model, 240V equipment. If you are content to run extension cords to appliances, nothing has to be installed.
Who it is not for: anyone without somewhere outdoors to put it, well away from the house. It also asks more of you than a battery does. Noise and fuel storage are the two things buyers underestimate once they have stopped underestimating the first one.
Carbon monoxide kills people every storm season. It is odorless and you will not notice it.
A portable generator runs outdoors only, away from doors, windows and vents. Not indoors, and not in a garage.
Portable generator with a transfer switch
The same generator, wired in properly so it can power circuits instead of extension cords. A licensed electrician installs a transfer switch or an interlocked inlet, usually with a permit and an inspection behind it.
Who it is for: homes where the critical loads are hardwired. That is the furnace blower, the well pump, the sump pump and some outlets, the things with no plug for a cord to reach. The switch changes what you can power, not for how long. Runtime is still the generator's, and the generator is still outdoors, away from doors, windows and vents.
Who it is not for: anyone hoping to improvise it. There is no safe informal version of this step, we do not publish instructions for it, and nothing on this page should be read as approval to attempt it.
This is the step where people try to save money by backfeeding a cord into a dryer outlet. That can electrocute the line worker restoring your power. Do not do it.
Standby generator
A permanently installed unit on natural gas or propane that starts itself, within seconds of the power failing, whether or not anyone is home to notice.
Who it is for: frequent or long outages, medical dependence on power, or a home nobody will be in to start a portable unit. It carries most or all of the house automatically. On natural gas the run time is effectively unlimited; on propane the tank sets the limit.
Who it is not for: anyone who might want to move it, and anyone budgeting for the unit alone. The installation is a concrete or composite pad, a gas connection, an automatic transfer switch, permits and an inspection, which means an electrician and usually a gas fitter. The install often costs more than the generator does, so get quotes on the whole job rather than on the box.
Battery with solar recharge
A power station or home battery that refills itself from panels. It runs indoors like any battery, with no combustion and no exhaust, but its duration is extendable rather than fixed, so it can keep going through a multi-day outage if the sun cooperates.
Who it is for: multi-day outages, no fuel access, or anyone who wants a system that is silent and usable indoors. Portable panels need no installation at all. Roof-mounted or grid-tied systems are a different animal: a permitted, professionally installed project.
Who it is not for: anyone who needs a guaranteed refill on a schedule. Solar cannot outrun bad weather, and panel output collapses under the cloud cover that often accompanies a storm. Recharge maths is where optimism creeps in. A 200W panel does not deliver 200W all day, so expect a fraction of nameplate, and read the station's solar input limits before you buy panels for it.
What changes the answer
Four situations pull the answer away from the obvious row in the table.
- Multi-day outages. A battery is fixed, and when the stored energy is gone it stops until something recharges it. Past the first day the real question is the refill: panels, a generator running outside, or a standby unit on natural gas that does not care how long this goes on.
- Medical equipment. A CPAP runs from a plug-in battery, within its wattage limit. But if someone in the house depends on power rather than merely wanting it, the path that suits is the one that starts itself with nobody home, which is the standby generator.
- A well pump. A typical residential well pump is 240V and wired into the building, and most portable power stations output 120V only. That is a hard wall, not a question of sizing up: it needs 240V equipment, and transfer equipment fitted by an electrician. Our list holds 5 generators and 7 power stations that supply 240V.
- An apartment. Every generator path needs outdoor space away from doors, windows and vents, and every wired path touches a breaker panel, with permits and inspection behind it. That leaves the two indoor paths: a plug-in battery, and a battery with portable panels if you have somewhere to put them in the sun.
Questions people ask
Can I just get a power station instead of a generator?
If everything you need has a plug and the outage is measured in hours to a day, yes, and you get something you can run indoors with no fuel to store. The two things that rule it out are hardwired loads, such as a furnace blower or a sump pump, and 240V loads such as a well pump.
What is a solar generator? Is it a different thing?
It is a battery power station that recharges from panels, not an engine. It runs indoors, makes no exhaust and no noise, and its duration is extendable rather than fixed. What it will not do is outrun bad weather, because panel output collapses under the cloud cover that often accompanies a storm.
Can I run a generator in the garage if I leave the door open?
No. A portable generator runs outdoors only, away from doors, windows and vents, and that includes garages. Carbon monoxide kills people every storm season, it is odorless, and you will not notice it happening.
Will any of these run my furnace?
Only through transfer equipment. A furnace blower is wired into the building, so there is no plug for a cord to reach. A licensed electrician fits a transfer switch or an interlocked inlet, usually with a permit and an inspection, and then a portable generator can power that circuit. A standby generator does the same job automatically.
Do I need a standby generator, or is a portable with a transfer switch enough?
A portable with a transfer switch powers the same hardwired circuits, for as long as you keep feeding it, and somebody has to be there to start it and refuel it. A standby unit is for frequent or long outages, medical dependence on power, or a house nobody will be in. Its installation often costs more than the unit.