Generator vs Power Station for Home Outage Backup

Upfront cost: per watt of output, a generator is far cheaper. The Westinghouse iGen8200TFc ($1,000 to $2,000) makes 6,600 W; the Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus (about $2,400) makes 6,000 W but only stores 3,840 Wh. Per day of outage, the generator costs fuel and the battery costs nothing until it runs flat, after which it needs the grid, the sun or a generator.

Cost per day: at a 75 to 250 W household average, a small inverter burns about 1.2 gallons of gas a day and a 240V tri-fuel inverter about 2.8, roughly $3.84 and $8.96 at $3.20 a gallon. On propane, multiply the gallons by 1.4: the iGen8200TFc's 2.8 becomes about 3.9 gallons of propane, close to one 20 lb tank a day. A battery recharged from solar costs nothing per day, but the panels are extra, and you need about Wh per day / (sun hours x 0.75) watts of them: 1,800 Wh a day with 4 hours of full sun takes about 600 W of panels.

Noise: the generators here are rated 52 to 74 dBA at 23 ft. A power station has no engine; the only sound is its cooling fan. Indoor use: a power station has no exhaust and runs anywhere in the house. A generator must run outdoors, at least 20 ft from the house with the exhaust pointed away, never in a garage, with battery CO alarms on every sleeping level.

240V: only the split-phase batteries (Anker F3800 and F3800 Plus, EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3, BLUETTI Apex 300) run a 240V well pump, while any generator with an L14-30R or 14-50R outlet does. Upkeep and storage: a generator needs oil changes and fuel management, and untreated gasoline goes stale in months, while sealed propane keeps for years. A LiFePO4 power station needs no fuel; check the manual for its storage top-up interval, or leave it plugged in so it is full when the power goes out.

Load: fridge, router and four LED lamps, 1,800 Wh a day (75 W average). A 2 kWh power station covers about 23 hours, a single overnight outage with margin. The fridge alone runs about 33 hours (1,741 / 52).

A 2,500 W inverter generator runs the same load indefinitely on about 1.2 gallons of gas a day, or one 20 lb propane tank every 2.7 days (1.2 x 1.4 = 1.7 gallons of propane a day). It has to sit outside and be refueled every 22 hours or so on its 1.1 gal tank.

Pick the battery if your outages are usually under a day, or if you also need a CPAP or a router on UPS. Pick the generator if outages in your area run several days.

Add a gas furnace blower (2,400 Wh a day) and the load is 4,200 Wh a day, a 175 W average. A C2000 Gen 2 with one BP2000 battery (4,096 Wh, $1,000 to $2,000 together) gives 3,482 Wh, about 20 hours. An Anker F3800 Plus gives about 19 hours.

The same 2,500 W inverter still burns about 1.2 gallons a day here, because 175 W is below its idle floor. A furnace is hardwired, so either source needs a furnace transfer switch such as the EZ Generator Switch (under $100) to plug it in with a cord.

In a cold-climate outage that lasts days, this is where a generator pays off: about $3.84 a day of gas against a battery that needs refilling every day. Running a battery from solar in winter is harder, since short days give fewer sun hours.

Load: fridge, chest freezer, gas furnace blower, 1/2 HP 240V well pump, router and lights, 5,920 Wh a day, about a 247 W average. Running total is about 1,900 W, and the well pump's start pushes the peak near 3,900 W, so you need 240V and real surge.

Battery: the Anker F3800 Plus (6,000 W, 9,000 W surge) gives 3,264 Wh, about 13 hours. With one BP3800 (about $1,800) it gives 6,528 Wh, about 26 hours, for about $4,200 together. To keep up from solar alone you would need about 2,000 W of panels in a 4-hour sun day (5,920 / 3).

Generator: the Westinghouse iGen8200TFc burns about 2.8 gallons of gas a day at this load, or runs from a natural gas line with no refueling at 5,280 W. The Westinghouse WGen9500DF ($500 to $1,000) is a cheaper 9,500 W open-frame unit, but at 74 dBA, with no CO sensor on this version and a conventional engine, it burns about 6.6 gallons a day at the same load. Either generator needs an interlock or transfer switch and an inlet box, installed by an electrician.