Sizing guides, setup how-tos, FAQs
It’s early on a Saturday morning and I’m sitting at my kitchen table with eleven product manuals, six pages of handwritten test notes, and a Kill A Watt meter that I’ve now used enough times that the grip is worn smooth on one side. My coffee is getting cold because I’m trying to figure out … Read more
Can you really get a reliable portable power station for under $500 that will actually make a difference when the power goes out? That’s a question I hear a lot, especially from homeowners who are just starting to think about backup power and don’t want to drop a grand on something they might only use … Read more
I was driving through Houma, Louisiana, just three weeks after Hurricane Ida made landfall in 2021. The sheer scale of the destruction was something I hadn’t seen even in my worst Florida storm seasons. But what struck me most wasn’t the downed trees or the damaged roofs; it was the sound. Or rather, the lack … Read more
Can a portable power station actually run my refrigerator? For how long? What happens if I leave it plugged in all the time? Do I need to do anything to maintain it? I get variations of these questions constantly — from readers, from neighbors, from people who found this site three hours into a power … Read more
Hey, quick note — this one should’ve gone up before my Generac vs EcoFlow and Kohler vs Generac posts, but it got lost in the scheduling shuffle, so here it is now. $10,847. That’s what a Generac 22kW air-cooled standby generator would have cost me, installed, at the middle quote of three I got from Jacksonville … Read more
Chris called me, his voice tight with frustration. “Marcus, you won’t believe this. I was on a critical client call, presenting the Q3 numbers, and the power just poof went out. My Generac kicked on, but there was that 15-second delay, and the Wi-Fi dropped. I looked like an amateur.” Chris, bless his heart, spent … Read more
4.5 million. That’s how many Texas homes and businesses lost power during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. According to the Texas Comptroller’s impact analysis, 69% of Texans lost power at some point during the February 14–20 event. Some for hours. Many for days. A significant number for the entire seven-day span. At least 246 people died … Read more
Yes. But not for the reason most people expect, and not at every price point. The solar panel question comes up constantly — usually from someone who just bought a DELTA Pro and is wondering if the $350–$400 for a 220W panel is worth adding. Chris asked me this almost word for word. He’d bought … Read more
The week after Hurricane Milton hit in October 2024, Ray had eleven generator installs booked. Not eleven inquiries — eleven confirmed jobs, permits already pulled, customers who’d called him during the storm because they’d finally had enough. He told me about it over the phone while he was driving between jobs. He sounded tired in … Read more
A reader named Patricia emailed me last month. She’d bought a 3,600Wh portable power station — the EcoFlow DELTA Pro — based on a YouTube video that said “bigger is always better for hurricane season.” She’d used it through two outages. First outage: she ran her refrigerator, her CPAP machine, and charged her phone. Used … Read more
