The budget kit
First Alert CO606 CO alarm, Coleman 800-lumen lantern, Midland ER10VP weather radio and an Anker Zolo 20,000 mAh power bank.
Winter 2026 · Updated November 15
Get your home ready for the next winter power outage.
Start with a small, carbon-monoxide-safe kit. Then size a power station to your home, not to the ads. Research-based picks, dated prices and honest limits.
4 hrsa closed fridge stays cold
48 hrsa full freezer holds
20 ftgenerators from doors & windows
How to choose
Three questions get you to the right setup
Answer them in order. Many homes only need step one or two.
No backup plan yet?
Start with the budget kit: a battery-backup CO alarm, a lantern, a weather radio and a power bank.
Need the fridge and Wi-Fi through a day-long outage?
Get a 1 kWh power station. Pick an expandable one only if you'll add batteries later.
Need house circuits or 240V?
Price a whole-home station together with a licensed electrician's quote before you buy.
Quick picks
Research-based picks for every kind of home
We have not tested this hardware hands-on. Picks come from maker specs, seller terms and public safety guidance. Prices change often, especially during Black Friday week, so check the current price before you buy. Shopping a sale? Read 7 checks before you buy a power station on sale.
BLUETTI Elite 100 V2 (1,024 Wh)
The lowest-priced 1 kWh station we found on Nov 15, at $499 on BLUETTI's store. BLUETTI's own figure: a 50W fridge for about 14.3 hours.
EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus (1,024 Wh)
Expands to 5 kWh. Skip it if you'll never add capacity.
Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus (3,840 Wh)
Covers whole-home and 240V loads with the Home Power Panel, which needs a licensed electrician. The unit weighs 136 lb.
EcoFlow RIVER 3 Plus (286 Wh)
A small station for essentials. Its 600W output will not run a full-size fridge.
The Self-Sufficient Backyard
A 288-page homesteading reference. Strongest on water and food storage. Not an outage-gear manual.
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Safety first
The four numbers worth knowing before the power goes out
From Ready.gov, Power Outages (last updated 06/04/2026).
4 hoursA closed refrigerator stays cold about this long.
48 hoursA full freezer holds its temperature about this long.
20 feetKeep generators, camp stoves and charcoal grills outdoors, at least this far from windows, doors and attached garages.
Every levelInstall battery-backup carbon monoxide alarms on every level of the home.
We bought it and read it
The Self-Sufficient Backyard: honest about its limits
By Ron and Johanna Melchiore. We read the digital edition that comes with the order. The book is more candid than its sales page: it calls free energy "a fantasy" (p. 66) and says its power chapter "is not meant to be a complete design manual" (p. 63).
Skip it if you rent, only need a two-day outage plan, want diagram-heavy plans, or already own a good canning reference.
- A real load calculation. A fridge, a light and a TV add up to 946 watt-hours a day (p. 73), the same habit you need to size a power station.
- Outage-relevant habits. Keep the freezer shut and cover it with heavy blankets (p. 208).
- Low-power food storage. Root cellaring, curing, canning and shelf-life lists (pp. 237–250).
- No carbon monoxide guidance, even though it discusses generators, a kerosene heater and wood stoves.
- Some dated advice. Battery advice centers on flooded lead-acid (p. 68); follow your generator maker's manual on fuel.