With extreme winter weather on the way, you might be looking for ways to bring backup power into the home. Our experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Improvement & Outdoor Lab are big fans of portable power stations—an emissions-free alternative to gas generators that’s safer to operate, since there’s no risk of carbon monoxide poisoning or the need to store and handle flammable fuel.
Better yet, our top pick among 20 tested portable power stations, the Jackery HomePower 3000, is nearly half off during Amazon Prime Day, saving you close to $1,500! The deal even includes a durable carrying bag, helpful when you need power on the go, say, for the campsite or your next tailgate.
The HomePower 3000 can generate up to 3,600 watts of power output, or 7,200 watts in surge mode, which is plenty of juice to keep a full-size refrigerator running for several days. It has five AC ports and four USB ports. Our experts like the lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery, which charges faster than standard lithium-ion batteries; in our tests, it reached a full charge in just two hours via a wall outlet and about 10 hours using a pair of 200-watt solar panels, sold separately.
At 60 pounds, the HomePower 3000 isn’t the lightest solar generator we looked at (for example, the Anker SOLIX F1500 Portable Power Station weighs 43.9 pounds, but its capacity is roughly half that of the Jackery). That makes the carrying bag a nice add-on.
The HomePower 3000 is reliable, too, with a claimed battery life of 4,000 cycles and the ability to hold a charge for months. As one GH staffer who evaluated the unit at home told us, “We had the generator sitting in a closet for close to six months, and when we powered it back up the battery was still at 100%.”
With the money you’re saving on the Amazon Prime Day deal, our experts recommend investing in at least a 100-watt solar panel to go with the device. Generators can recharge from a wall outlet, but solar panels let you keep them powered during extended power outages or off-grid use with nothing but sunlight.
