Portable power station for an RV

Start with shore power, not with the battery

If a TT-30 pedestal is available for the whole trip, the pedestal is the architecture and the station is a convenience. A TT-30 inlet is 120 V × 30 A nameplate — 3,600 W — but it is a connector, not a promise: plan against roughly 2,880 W continuous, and expect less on a hot afternoon at a crowded campground.

The loads that actually matter for a weekend

• LED lighting: 20–60 Wh per night.
• Water pump, intermittent: 30–80 Wh per day.
• 12 V compressor fridge: 300–700 Wh per day, the single largest steady draw.
• Laptops, phones, CPAP without a humidifier: 100–400 Wh per night.

Two nights of that is commonly 800–2,400 Wh at the outlet, before conversion losses. Apply the same 85% delivery factor and 15% reserve and a 2,000 Wh class station is a realistic two-night unit for everything except air conditioning.

Air conditioning is the decision boundary

A single roof unit typically runs around 1,300 W and surges far higher on startup. Even four hours a night is over 5,000 Wh, before losses. That is not a portable-station problem — it is a shore power, generator, or properly installed lithium-and-inverter problem. This publication refuses to size it from a Yes/No answer: without declared AC watts and hours, the diagnostic escalates rather than guessing.

The battery you already own counts — but not one-for-one

Existing house-battery energy is DC. Running AC loads through an inverter costs roughly 15% of it, so usable DC watt-hours are credited against AC loads only after that factor is applied. Alternator charging counts only when you declare both the charging watts and the hours you actually drive.

Check your own trip

Run the RV weekend check, or read the travel trailer variant.