Power station for van life: a working day off-grid, on solar
A day working from the van: laptop, phone, Starlink or a router, the fridge, lights and a fan, then how much solar input the unit needs to replace that day by evening. Start with EcoFlow DELTA 3 Ultra for enough capacity without carrying a much larger battery.
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Best for van life3.9/5 overall
Score from the maker's figures and 3 independent reviews
Why it’s here Holds 3,072 Wh against the 2,295 Wh needed for a working day in a van. $1,399 ($0.46 per Wh), a lower-cost way to cover a working day in a van.
16 of 56 current units hold enough over 1 day. The watt-hours include inverter losses and 20% spare; the start-up figure is what the largest motor draws for an instant. See the arithmetic.
What decides a van unit
Daily recharge. A working day of laptop, Starlink (88 W, the largest steady draw in the preset), fridge, lights and a fan is 2,295 Wh, and that day has to come back by evening from the roof or the alternator. So after fit, the columns that matter are maximum solar input (divide the unit's Wh by it for the best-case hours of sun on the solar page), maximum AC input (for a campground or an inverter-charger), and expandability, because a van has the space for a second battery that a tent does not.
Chemistry matters more here than in any other job: a unit cycled every day wants LiFePO4's 3,000-plus cycle rating, and theLiFePO4 vs NMC guide works out what that is worth over years of daily use.
The load, device by device
Over 1 day. Device watt-hours ÷ 0.85 for the inverter, × 1.2 for headroom, gives the 2,295 Wh above; the start-up peak adds the largest single surge among these devices to the running total. 1 device in this job's preset is not in the device table and is left out rather than guessed.
Devices in this job
Device
Watts
Hours a day
Wh a day
Start-up W
Starlink Standard kit (dish + router) (average)
88
8
700
–
Laptop (MacBook Air, charging) (rated)
40
8
320
–
Smartphone charger (USB-C) (rated)
20
2
40
–
Camp LED light set (4 chainable lights) (rated)
6
4
26
–
Box fan, 20 inch (rated)
90
6
540
–
Every unit that clears it
Listed smallest to largest by capacity; every unit here clears the job, so the smaller ones are the cheaper way to do it.
16 units
16 units that hold 2,295 Wh and clear 244 W at start-up
Tick appliances from the device table, or add your own appliance using its label or a plug-in watt meter. Keep a preset only if it matches the equipment you plan to run.
Any picks earlier on this page use the starting appliances. Your changes update the calculator and its table below.
For a well pump, furnace or house inlet, check the connection before choosing by watts. The home-backup guide explains what an electrician needs to check.
Home
h/dayrated 90 W
h/dayrated 180 W
h/dayavg 41 W · start-up 1,300 W
h/dayrated 10 W
h/dayrated 1,500 W
h/dayrated 1,116 W · start-up 2,900 W
h/dayrated 89 W
Medical
h/dayrated 45 W
h/dayrated 53 W · start-up 104 W
h/dayrated 120 W
Camp and outdoors
h/dayrated 6 W
Work and tools
h/dayrated 1,800 W · start-up 2,300 W
h/dayrated 40 W
h/dayrated 20 W
h/dayavg 88 W
h/dayrated 24 W
Add your own appliances
Your entries stay in this tab. They are not saved in a link or sent with calculator events.
Use running watts while the appliance is on. For a cycling fridge or pump, enter the hours connected and the percentage of that time it runs. If your watts are already a daily average, leave duty at 100%. Startup watts must include the full startup draw, not just the extra watts.
Rated capacity you need
2,295Wh
AC running peak
244W
AC start-up peak
244W
Devices draw 1,626 Wh over1 days. 1,626 ÷ 0.85 × 1.2 gives the rated Wh to buy.
The loss allowance is an estimate. Headroom adds 20% to the energy requirement. All selected appliances can run together; copies in the same custom row can start together.
DC rows use this separate estimate. The default keeps the same loss allowance as AC; change it only if you know the efficiency of your cable and converter. Port voltage, current and shared limits still need checking.
16 of 56 tracked units fit
Units that fit the requirement above, sorted by price per Wh
They are arithmetic: capacity × 0.85 ÷ device watts. Real hours depend on temperature, battery age and the exact device; the constants are stated so you can adjust them, and every device draw in the calculator can be changed.
What if nothing fits?
Shorten the hours, drop a device, or move it to DC. The calculator recomputes as you change it, and the checkbox under its table shows every unit with the reason it fails, which usually points at one device.
Why is the pick not the biggest unit?
Because the job is fixed, and once a unit clears it, more capacity is weight and money for nothing. Choose the weight, recharge time and expansion options you will actually use.
