Portable Power Station

1. What is a portable power station?

Portable power station is an outdoor multi-functional power supply product with built-in lithium-ion battery and its own energy storage, also known as outdoor portable power station.

The portable power station has the characteristics of light weight, high capacity, high power, long life and strong stability.

It is not only equipped with multiple USB ports to meet the charging of digital products, but also output DC, AC, car cigarette lighters and other common power ports, which can be used for notebook computers, drones, photography lights, projectors, rice cookers, electric fans, burners, etc. Kettles, cars and other equipment are powered.

It is suitable for scenarios with large power consumption such as outdoor camping, outdoor live broadcast, outdoor construction, location shooting, and household emergency power consumption.

2. How does a portable power station work?

The portable power station is actually an outdoor emergency power supply that converts direct current into alternating current, which consists of chargers, inverters, batteries, isolation transformers, switches and other devices.

Therefore, the main working principle of the portable power station is to use the function of the inverter to convert the DC power into the available AC power output.

Among them, the portable power station increases the outdoor use conditions for the emergency power supply, but after adding such conditions, the available emergency power supply objects will be greatly reduced.

Although the portable power station is a lithium battery energy storage power source specially designed for outdoor emergency, it is the largest type of outdoor emergency power source selected by users.

3. What is the difference between a portable power station and a solar generator?

The basic principles and functions of portable power stations and solar generators are the same. They do not generate electricity by themselves, but store electricity.

The difference is that portable power stations are usually charged with a power adapter, while solar generators can also be charged with solar panels in addition to charging with a power adapter. Of course, many portable generators can now also be charged using solar panels.

4. What is the difference between a portable power station and a power bank?

Portable power stations and mobile power sources are essentially electrical energy storage, but there are also big differences, mainly in the following aspects.

• Usually, the mobile power supply only has one or more USB sockets that can output power, and can only charge smaller devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers. Portable power stations have several types of outlets that can output electricity.
• The capacity of the portable power station to store electric energy is much larger than that of the mobile power supply. The mobile power supply is usually 20,000 mAh, while the portable power station is more than 10 times that.
• Portable power stations are superior to mobile power sources in terms of structure and safety.

5. What should you pay attention to when choosing a portable power station?

With the continued popularity of portable power stations, we should all want to have such a device. It’s not just a big battery, it can bring more energy to our life. What should we pay attention to when choosing to buy a portable power station?

5.1 Portability

Batteries occupy the main part of portable power stations, and portability is our first consideration when purchasing a portable power station.

Under the same capacity and power, it is more beneficial to choose a portable power station with smaller size and lighter weight, which is more convenient for us to carry in daily use.

5.2 battery capacity

Battery capacity is a very important indicator for portable power stations.

Its size determines how long we can use it to work, and the larger the battery capacity, the longer the working time.

If you don’t know how to calculate, you can look at the calculation formula below.

Working time = Explorer’s Watt-Hours * 0.85 / operating power of your device.

Example:
Let’s assume your device’s power consumption is 60W (might be a box fan), and you want to use the SG-600 to run your device.

600Wh*0.85/60w = Roughly 8.5 hours of working time

Please note the actual power consumption varies based on many factors.

Say you’re hosting a 4-hour outdoor summer party and plan to bring:

• Iceless cooler (60 watts)
• Light set (30 watts)
• Slow cooker (80 watts)

All of the above devices add up to 170W, and 4 hours will use 680Wh.

A 680Wh portable power station won’t cut it.

About 10-20% of the battery is lost when powering the device, so a 730Wh-820Wh portable power station is required to throw this party.

That is if you use it to drop from 100% to 0%, which is a no-no for battery health.

If you’re going to keep it in the 80%-20% sweet spot for the longest lifespan, then you’ll need a portable power station with around 1000Wh-1200Wh.

5.3 battery lifetime

No matter what battery it is, it will reduce its own capacity during the continuous charging and discharging process, so the battery life of the portable power station is also our focus.

Lithium batteries with different cells have different lifespans, and all rechargeable batteries lose capacity slightly over their lifespan, in part because of their charge/discharge cycles.

A full cycle is when the battery is 100% used in total – if you use 30% today, 50% tomorrow, and 20% the next day, that’s one cycle. It doesn’t matter if/how much you charge these days.

In short, we usually only care about how many times the battery is cycled, the storage capacity will drop below 80%.

5.4 Other functions

At a minimum, a portable power station should have USB and AC outlets.

You may come across all kinds of bells and whistles, all kinds of charging options, app features, expandable capacity (that is, adding battery packs), and other accessories available (such as home integration kits and smart generators).

6. Portable Power Station Prices

The price of portable power station is closely related to brand, function, capacity, power and origin.

At present, more than 90% of the portable power stations in the world are supplied by Chinese manufacturers, and China is the country with the most intensive industrial chain of portable power stations.

Below we have listed the prices of some portable power stations on e-commerce platforms, just for your reference, note that this is the retail price and not the manufacturer’s wholesale price. If you are interested in the price of portable power station, you can also contact us.

7.3 Shenzhen Zhenghao Innovation Technology Co., Ltd

As a global industry leader in mobile energy storage and clean energy technology, Zhenghao EcoFlow has launched two product series based on various typical electricity needs: RIVER and DELTA, which fully cover multiple application scenarios such as home emergency, outdoor travel, and professional work. . The industry’s original patented X-Stream lightning fast charging technology can safely fast charge to 80% within 1 hour, providing global users with a reliable portable energy solution.

In 2021, Zhenghao EcoFlow independently developed and launched the world’s first all-round mobile power station with expandable capacity – De DELTA Pro. Once released, it ranked first in the global technology category of Kickstarter and became the trusted choice of users around the world.