Practical result: many households buy a \u20ac2,000 station expecting to get through winter, only to discover it heats nothing for more than an hour and ends up being used to recharge phones. Meanwhile others, with a well-spent \u20ac400, keep the heating running all night\u2014an observation we revisit, because it\u2019s the most useful takeaway of this dossier. We\u2019ve gone through actual consumption by post, using roughly the same ballparks as those in our real-cost heating-energy comparison.<\/p>\n
What a blackout really cuts from your home<\/h2>\n
Before buying anything, you need to know what goes out. The list is longer than \u201cthe lights and the fridge,\u201d and it always surprises.<\/p>\n
Heating, including gas and oil.<\/strong> This is the most unpleasant discovery. A gas boiler does not operate without electricity: its electronics, ignition, and especially the circulating pump that pushes hot water through radiators are all powered by the mains. A house heated with gas is thus cold during a blackout, just like a house that relies entirely on electricity.<\/p>\n Water, in some cases.<\/strong> A home fed by the public network keeps its pressure. A well with a booster pump, or an upper-floor served by a supply pump, loses running water.<\/p>\n Landline telephone.<\/strong> Telephony now runs through the box, hence through the mains. The old analog phone plugged into the line disappeared with copper.<\/p>\n The gate, the garage door, the rolling shutter.<\/strong> Each has a manual backup operation that is better learned before the outage than by the light of a flashlight.<\/p>\n Home medical devices.<\/strong> A continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device consumes roughly 30 to 60 W, while an oxygen concentrator consumes much more. If such a device is used in the home, the issue is handled with the medical provider that installed it, not with a product sheet: most have a protocol and a backup solution in place for this scenario.<\/p>\n A power station lists two figures. The output power, in watts, tells you what you can run without the device tripping. The capacity, in watt-hours, tells you for how long.<\/p>\n And you must subtract about 15% of the stated capacity: inverter efficiency, conversion losses, system reserve. A 1,000 Wh station effectively delivers about 850 Wh.<\/p>\n Here are the actual average consumptions for the important loads, followed by the corresponding autonomy.<\/p>\n The refrigerator line deserves explanation, because 15 W is surprising. A recent fridge-freezer consumes 100 to 150 kWh per year, i.e., 270 to 410 Wh per day. Its compressor draws 80 to 120 W but runs only about a third of the time on average: that\u2019s the figure that matters for sizing a battery, not the peak. However, the power output of the station must cover the compressor\u2019s startup spike, which briefly climbs much higher.<\/p>\n Look at the bold line in the table. It\u2019s the most valuable information in this dossier and it doesn\u2019t appear on any product sheet.<\/p>\n A gas boiler consumes about 100 W to run its electronics and circulator. The gas itself keeps arriving; the gas distribution network isn\u2019t affected by an electrical outage. In other words, in a house heated with gas, 100 watts is enough to keep the heating running.<\/p>\n So a 1,000 Wh station maintains heating for eight and a half hours. A full night. For \u20ac600\u2013\u20ac700, and the same station can also power lighting and phones once the boiler is turned off in the morning.<\/p>\n Compared with the \u201celectric space heating\u201d approach, which is the reflex of most buyers: the same 1,000 Wh station powers a space heater for about fifty minutes. That\u2019s ten times less time, for just one room, instead of the whole house.<\/p>\n Three checks before counting on this solution. The actual power draw of your boiler when the burner is off, readable on the nameplate or in the manual. The fact that the hookup is accessible\u2014many boilers connect to a standard outlet, some are wired directly and require a electrician to add an outlet. And the presence of a room thermostat, which consumes a few extra watts.<\/p>\n For a house heated by electricity, this reasoning does not apply: there is no reasonable home battery solution to run electric radiators. This is one of the rarely cited arguments in favor of gas, wood, or a non-electric auxiliary stove\u2014a point we addressed from another angle in our analysis of so\u2011called economical radiators.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the number one worry, and it\u2019s largely overestimated.<\/p>\n A full freezer, door closed, keeps its contents frozen for 24 to 48 hours without power. A chest freezer holds longer than a cabinet-style unit, and a fully loaded unit lasts longer than one that’s half empty\u2014the mass of frozen goods itself serves as the cold reserve.<\/p>\n The rule is simple and free: do not open it. Not \u201copen quickly,\u201d not \u201cjust to check.\u201d Do not open.<\/p>\n Powering a freezer with a battery makes sense only for a blackout announced to last more than 24 hours, or in a zone where outages typically run long. In that case, and only in that case, the row from the table becomes relevant and is favorable, with more than two days of autonomy on a 1,000 Wh station.<\/p>\n Four uses to definitively rule out, because they are about power, not energy.<\/p>\n To heat.<\/strong> Any electric resistance heating draws between 1,000 and 2,500 W. A portable station, in this use, is a device with roughly an hour of autonomy. There is no consumer model that changes this arithmetic.<\/p>\n To cook.<\/strong> Hobs, oven, kettle, microwave: same family of powers, same conclusion. A camping gas stove for \u20ac25 does the job infinitely better, for forty times less cost.<\/p>\n To produce hot water.<\/strong> An electric water heater requires 1,500 to 2,400 W for several hours. Out of reach.<\/p>\n To power the entire house.<\/strong> Portable stations plug in device by device. Connecting a backup power source to the electrical panel is a fixed installation, which requires an electrician and a transfer switch, not a product you buy online and unpack during a storm.<\/p>\n Price per watt-hour goes down as capacity rises, which mechanically pushes buyers toward overdimensioning. Here are the rough figures as of early October 2026.<\/p>\n The takeaway: the price gap per watt-hour between 300 and 2,000 Wh is about 20%, which is modest. The absolute price gap is \u20ac1,000, which is not. Overdimensioning costs little per unit of energy and a lot in absolute terms, and unused capacity yields no return.<\/p>\n Two criteria matter nearly as much as capacity and are less emphasized. The chemistry of the cells: lithium iron phosphate, LiFePO4, typically promises about 3,000 cycles versus 500\u2013800 for traditional chemistries, a worthwhile consideration for a device meant to last ten years and serve three times a year. And the presence of a solar input, which turns the station into a usable back-up even off-grid during outages. We quantified the profitability of this approach in our plug-and-play solar kits dossier, and we tested a model combining both uses with the Jackery SolarVault 3 Pro Max.<\/p>\n For the models themselves, our Bluetti AC200L tests and our review of EcoFlow stations detail real-world behavior during charging and discharging.<\/p>\n For long-term autonomy, a gasoline-powered generator remains unbeatable: \u20ac500\u2013\u20ac900 for 2,000 W continuous, with autonomy limited only by available fuel.<\/p>\n It imposes, however, a hard rule, and it kills every winter. A generator never runs indoors.<\/strong> Not in a garage, even with the door ajar. Not in a veranda. Not under a canopy attached to the house. Not in a cellar or basement. The exhaust gases contain carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas whose early signs\u2014headaches, nausea, drowsiness\u2014mimic fatigue and push you to lie down instead of leaving.<\/p>\n The recommended safety distance is several meters from any opening, window, or vent, with the exhaust directed away from the building. And a carbon monoxide detector inside, around \u20ac20, is the logical complement to any generator.<\/p>\n The same precaution applies to diesel\/gasoline space heaters that reappear on shelves each autumn: they require continuous ventilation of the room and should never operate in a closed bedroom.<\/p>\n Apartment, collective heating.<\/strong> The heating doesn\u2019t rely on you and restarts on its own. A 30\u20ac external phone battery and two \u20ac15 headlamps cover 90% of the real need. A 300 Wh station is enough if you work from home and want to keep the box online. Beyond that, you\u2019re into comfort purchasing.<\/p>\n House, gas or oil heating.<\/strong> This is the scenario where a station is fully justified: aim for 1,000 Wh, identify the boiler outlet, and you\u2019ll survive a blackout for a night without the house dropping. The best balance of usefulness and price in this dossier.<\/p>\nThe calculation no one publishes<\/h2>\n
\n\n
\n \nUsage<\/th>\n Consumption<\/th>\n Station 300 Wh<\/th>\n 600 Wh<\/th>\n 1,000 Wh<\/th>\n 2,000 Wh<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Internet box and telephone<\/td>\n 20 W<\/td>\n 12 h<\/td>\n 25 h<\/td>\n 42 h<\/td>\n 85 h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n LED lighting, four points<\/td>\n 30 W<\/td>\n 8 h<\/td>\n 17 h<\/td>\n 28 h<\/td>\n 56 h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Recent refrigerator-freezer<\/td>\n Average 15 W<\/td>\n 17 h<\/td>\n 34 h<\/td>\n 56 h<\/td>\n 113 h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Laptop<\/td>\n 45 W<\/td>\n 5 h<\/td>\n 11 h<\/td>\n 18 h<\/td>\n 37 h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 55-inch television<\/td>\n 90 W<\/td>\n 2.8 h<\/td>\n 5.7 h<\/td>\n 9 h<\/td>\n 18 h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Gas boiler: circulator and electronics<\/strong><\/td>\n 100 W<\/strong><\/td>\n 2.5 h<\/strong><\/td>\n 5 h<\/strong><\/td>\n 8.5 h<\/strong><\/td>\n 17 h<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Electric space heater<\/td>\n 1,000 W<\/td>\n 18 min<\/td>\n 30 min<\/td>\n 50 min<\/td>\n 1.7 h<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Kettle<\/td>\n 2,000 W<\/td>\n \u2014<\/td>\n 15 min<\/td>\n 25 min<\/td>\n 50 min<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Induction hob, one burner<\/td>\n 1,800 W<\/td>\n \u2014<\/td>\n 17 min<\/td>\n 28 min<\/td>\n 56 min<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n The gas boiler case, the one everyone misses<\/h2>\n
The freezer: the good news<\/h2>\n
What a station will never do<\/h2>\n
What it actually costs<\/h2>\n
\n\n
\n \nCapacity<\/th>\n Indicative price<\/th>\n Price per Wh<\/th>\n What it\u2019s honestly for<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n 300 Wh<\/td>\n \u20ac200\u2013\u20ac300<\/td>\n ~\u20ac0.83\/Wh<\/td>\n Phones, lights, box. One evening.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 600 Wh<\/td>\n \u20ac400\u2013\u20ac500<\/td>\n ~\u20ac0.75\/Wh<\/td>\n Same as above but longer, or five hours of gas boiler.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 1,000 Wh<\/td>\n \u20ac600\u2013\u20ac800<\/td>\n ~\u20ac0.70\/Wh<\/td>\n One night of gas heating, or two days of freezer.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2,000 Wh<\/td>\n \u20ac1,100\u2013\u20ac1,500<\/td>\n ~\u20ac0.65\/Wh<\/td>\n A full weekend on the key loads.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n The generator, and the danger that\u2019s underestimated<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\nPriorities list, by your home<\/h2>\n