Free 2-minute outage check
Will a portable power station keep your refrigerator cold?
A typical US refrigerator uses roughly 1,000–1,900 Wh per day, so a 1,000 Wh station covers most of one day and a 2,000 Wh station covers one to two days — but a 72-hour outage usually fails without enough daily recharge, and no capacity figure means anything until the station can also start the compressor. This check does that arithmetic with your numbers, conservatively.
You need one number from the yellow EnergyGuide label. No email. No brand choice. About 2 minutes.
- Step 1How long is the outage?
- Step 2What does your refrigerator use?
- Step 3Can a station run it?
- Step 4What can change the answer?
Common questions
- How many watt-hours does a refrigerator need per day?
- A modern US refrigerator on its EnergyGuide label usually lands between 350 and 700 kWh per year, which is roughly 950 to 1,900 Wh per day. Use your own label figure: the range between two models is larger than most people expect.
- Will a 1,000 Wh power station run my refrigerator?
- For a short outage, often yes. A 1,000 Wh station delivers roughly 700 usable Wh after conversion losses and a safety reserve, which covers about 8 to 18 hours of a typical refrigerator — provided the station can also start the compressor.
- Will a 2,000 Wh power station cover a 72-hour outage?
- Usually not on its own. Three days of a typical refrigerator is roughly 3,000 to 5,700 Wh at the outlet. Without enough daily recharge to replace what you use each day, the cycle never closes and the answer is a different architecture, not a bigger battery.
- Why do you ask for running watts and startup watts separately?
- Energy and power are different problems. Watt-hours decide how long you last; running watts decide whether the station can hold the compressor, and startup watts decide whether it can start it at all. A station can have plenty of energy and still fail on the surge.
- Where is the EnergyGuide number on my refrigerator?
- It is on the large yellow EnergyGuide label, usually inside the door or on the back, printed as "estimated yearly electricity use" in kWh. If the label is gone, look up the model number on the manufacturer's site, or measure 24 hours with a plug-in power meter.