I spent $600 on a home battery backup and it barely helped

Last year I dropped $600 on a portable power station for my apartment thinking it would let me run my fridge and a fan during summer blackouts. Turns out these things are fine for charging phones but can't handle a mini fridge compressor kicking on. The peak draw spikes over 800 watts and the battery shuts off every time. I could have put that money toward better window insulation or a cheap solar panel for my balcony. Anyone else get burned by these battery pack specs not matching real use?

2 comments

2 Comments

jennifer_fisher16d ago

Wait, are you saying those power stations can't actually run a fridge?

rayc8316d ago

Yeah my buddy found that out the hard way last summer. He bought one of the bigger name brand power stations thinking it would run his fridge and a few lights during an outage, and the thing shut down after like two hours. The fridge's compressor kicking on just pulled way more power than the unit could handle on a steady basis.