Early in the morning of January 16^th we lost power at Leonard Farm, as did much of Windham County, Vermont. For us, the outage lasted about a day-and-a-half. A storm had dumped four or five inches of wet, heavy snow, bringing down trees and tree limbs on power lines throughout the region.

We don’t have a backup generator on our farm, and it was cloudy during the outage during the daylight hours, so my solar array wasn’t generating any power. (Unlike most grid-connected solar systems, mine includes a special inverter that allows a hard disconnect from the utility grid and activation of an outlet beneath the inverter to which electrical loads up to 1,500 watts can be plugged in—so we have some backup power, but only during the daytime on clear days.)

Like most Vermonters, we have a wood stove, so heat wasn’t a concern. The biggest concern for most rural homeowners in our area is water for drinking, cooking, washing, and toilet flushing. Our deep-well, submersible pump wasn’t operational, but fortunately, we have a spring up by a pond on our farm, so during the extended outage we drove up to fill various containers with potable water.

So, what about electricity for keeping our cell phones charged and powering a light for evening activities like reading? Here, we were well prepared. I have a small portable battery system that, when fully charged, provides plenty of power for these needs.

Portable power for my cabin

I purchased my portable battery system (power station) for a small writer’s cabin that I built up by our pond—my big COVID project during 2020! It’s an idyllic spot and awesome cabin that I tend to spend far too much time talking about!

But instead, I’ll describe my portable power system and the role it can play in our resilience.

The cabin is about a third of a mile from our house. I thought about putting in a solar-electric system for the cabin—and still hope to some day. In the mean time, I bought a Jackery Explorer 500 portable battery system. While I’ve only had it a few months, it perfectly suits my needs at the cabin and—being portable—is a handy source of backup power during power outages.

About the Jackery Explorer line of portable battery stations

Jackery was founded in 2012 by a battery engineer at Apple. Jackery introduced the world’s first portable, lithium-ion battery power station in 2015. As a long-time Apple computer and iPhone user, that background gave me confidence that the electronics would be well thought through.

The Explorer line currently includes five different units, ranging from 160 to 1,000 Watt-hours, or 0.16 to 1.0 kWh. I got the second-largest, offering about 500 Wh of capacity. With a 5W LED light on in the cabin—plenty for reading or working at my computer, that’s enough power for nearly 100 hours of operation. When the battery level drops much below 50%, I simply carry the unit down to the house and recharge it overnight.

Lithium-ion batteries keep the weight of the Explorer 500 down to a reasonable 13 pounds; the Explorer 1000, which would have twice the battery life is almost double the weight, making it a little more of a burden to lug down to the house—not to mention that it’s twice as expensive.

The Jackery Explorer 500 has one 110-volt AC outlet, providing a maximum 500 watts in pure sine wave power (1,000 W of surge power); three standard USB-A ports (5V, 2.4 amp); a 12V car-type DC plug (10 amp); and two other, smaller DC charging ports. The larger Explorer 1000 includes three 110V AC plugs, and two USB-C ports in addition to two standard USB ports.

Though not available when I purchased my unit, the Explorer 300 has some advantages over the 500: a USB-C port in addition to two USB-A ports and two, rather than one, 110V AC outlets. Plus, it’s a little lighter and less expensive, at about $350, vs. $500 for the Explorer 500. I suspect that the Explorer 500 will be upgraded soon to include these features.

Jackery offers two sizes of rugged solar panels, the SolarSaga 100W and SolarSaga 60W, for charging their Explorer power stations. Costing about $300 and $180, respectively, these panels include all necessary connections. The SolarSaga 100W will charge the Explorer 500 from 0% to 100% in about 9.5 hours in full sun.

Jackery not the only game in town

While Jackery pioneered portable lithium-ion power systems, they are no longer the only company making such systems. Their biggest competitor, relative to performance and quality, is probably EcoFlow, which makes several sizes of high-quality portable battery systems.

The EcoFlow Delta 1300 Power Station is the largest of EcoFlow’s lithium-ion battery systems, providing 1269 Wh of electricity. This unit offers six AC outlets, which can provide a maximum of 1800 watts and 3300 watts of surge power. In addition, the unit includes four USB-A ports (two of which are higher-output “fast-charge” ports), two USB-C ports, and a 12V DC car-type port. The EcoFlow Delta 1300 weighs about 31 pounds and has two carrying handles, making it easier for two people to carry.

Like Jackery, EcoFlow offers smaller power stations: River 600, River 600 Max, and River 370, rated at 288 Wh, 576 Wh, and 412 Wh, respectively.

Significantly, the EcoFlow power stations are rated for a wider operating temperature range than the Jackery units: -4° to 140°F (-20° to 60°C), compared with 14° to 104°F (-10° to 40°C). Had I been aware of this difference when I was researching portable battery stations, I would have seriously considered an EcoFlow power station, since I only heat my cabin when I’m using it. (My Jackery unit seems to work fine at the lower limit of the operating range, and I’m curious whether low-temperature operation is really a concern.)

EcoFlow also offers faster recharge than the Jackery products: from 0% to 80% charge in just one hour, vs. more gradual charging with the Jackery: 7.5 hours from 0% to 100%.

Other portable battery stations are made by Yeti, ChargeTech, and Suaoki, but these don’t seem to be as highly rated in comparisons I looked at. This is a relatively new type of product, and it is likely that additional manufacturers will enter the market.

Portable battery power and resilience

When I was considering buying a portable, battery-powered unit for my cabin I knew that it would have resilience benefits well beyond the cabin. Power outages are fairly common in rural Vermont, and we now have an easy option for powering a few lights, rather than hunting around for candles, and keeping our phones and laptops charged. When I know that a storm is expected, I can make sure the portable power station is fully charged.

If my camping practices shift toward the glamping end of the spectrum, I’ll also have power for my late-night, in-tent reading.

Note that these units aren’t large enough to power a refrigerator or freezer. With two freezers full of produce from our farm, including vegetables and chickens, keeping those frozen is still a concern for me. With the last outage, I covered the two freezers in our basement with blankets, but that would only help for a few days. To reliably deal with powering those, as well as the refrigerator in our kitchen, I would either need a larger battery system, such as a Tesla Powerwall, or a fuel-fired generator.

The bottom line is that a portable power station is exactly what I needed for my cabin, and it provides important—though not complete—backup power during power outages. I’m very happy with my Jackery 500. I can later add Jackery’s 100W solar panel for charging it, to avoid having to carry the unit down to our house for charging.   

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Along with founding the Resilient Design Institute in 2012, Alex is founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. To keep up with his latest articles and musings, you can sign up for his Twitter feed. To receive e-mail notices of new blogs, sign up at the top of the page.