Select your power station, then choose any compatible extension battery, solar panels, inverter path, and wind turbine setup you want to compare.
Next, choose your expected Usage level and Season, then check the devices and loads you want the calculator to account for.
Click Calculate to generate a color coded rating, estimated battery runtime, daily solar and wind harvest, and a practical breakdown of how your selected setup performs.
You can print the results directly or copy and paste them for trip planning, backup power planning, off grid setups, or long term preparedness notes.
Solar Panels
DC Inverter / Solar Path
Wind Turbine
Power Station
Usage
Season
Devices / Loads
More information:
This calculator is designed as a simple planning tool for estimating how a portable power setup might perform in a light off grid environment. It combines the battery capacity of common portable power stations, optional extension batteries, and renewable charging sources such as solar panels or small wind turbines with the estimated energy demand of typical devices used in vanlife, camping, and small backup power setups.
The core calculation compares two things: available energy and expected consumption. Available energy begins with the rated watt hour capacity of the selected power station and expansion batteries. Consumption is estimated from the devices selected in the load list, using commonly reported wattage values or average daily watt hour usage for devices such as laptops, 12v fridges, heated blankets, Starlink units, and other small electronics commonly used in mobile or off grid setups.
Solar and wind selections are used to estimate daily energy generation. Solar production is adjusted by season to reflect the reality that summer sun, shoulder seasons, and winter conditions produce very different charging results. These values assume relatively good conditions such as reasonable sun exposure and correct panel orientation. Cloud cover, shading, panel angle, dust, temperature, and location can all affect real output.
Portable power stations also have charging limits and inverter losses that affect real world performance. Even if large solar arrays are connected, a power station can only accept charging up to its rated solar input limit. Likewise, when AC devices run through an inverter, some stored energy is lost in the conversion process. For that reason, the usable battery capacity in the calculator is treated slightly more conservatively than the raw manufacturer battery rating.
Users should expect variation in real world results. Battery efficiency, ambient temperature, device duty cycles, compressor cycling in refrigerators, startup surges, inverter efficiency, and aging batteries can all influence how long a system actually runs. The numbers in this calculator are intended to represent typical planning values rather than exact measurements for every device or brand.
If you want to check the math yourself, start by confirming the watt hour capacity and solar input limits of your specific power station from the manufacturer’s specifications. Then check the wattage or daily watt hour consumption of the devices you plan to run. Many devices list this on a label or in the manual, and a plug-in watt meter can measure actual usage directly. Multiply device wattage by the number of hours used per day to estimate daily energy demand, then compare that against the usable battery capacity and expected solar recharge.
In practical terms, this tool should be treated as a rough baseline for designing a small portable power setup. It is intended to help people visualize whether a lightweight system might cover basic needs for vanlife, camping, travel, or small homestead backup scenarios before investing in equipment. Users who want a more precise estimate can substitute their own measured device usage and local solar conditions into the same calculations.