Power stations and solar panels: is this a good price? Check it in three steps
A power station stores electricity; a solar panel makes it. Both are sold on big numbers, so the fair way to compare prices is per unit: dollars per watt-hour for a power station, dollars per watt for a panel. Decide what it is for, work out how much you need, then hold the price per unit up against the ranges below.
Step 1: What is it for?
Carry it: camping, car trips, the van
Weight and size decide. Most people here want enough for phones, lights, a laptop, a small cooler or a fan — a few hundred to about 1,000 watt-hours — recharged from the car and a folding panel.
Keep it home for power cuts
Now the fridge, a CPAP, the router and lights matter, so think 1,000 watt-hours and up, on wheels. Consumer Reports' testing puts it plainly: these are for outages that last hours, not days — recharging takes hours.
Step 2: How much do you need?
Two numbers do all the work, and people mix them up.
- Capacity, in watt-hours (Wh): how much energy the battery holds — the size of the tank. 1,000 Wh = 1 kWh.
- Output, in watts (W): how much it can hand over at once — the width of the hose. A big tank with a thin hose still cannot run a microwave.
Work out the watt-hours
For each device: watts × hours you will run it = watt-hours. Add them up, then divide by 0.85: a power station loses some energy turning its battery into wall-socket power, and OutdoorGearLab measured most units delivering 80–87% of their rating (75–93% at the extremes). The watts are on the device's label or its charger.
| Example (label watts) | Hours | Watt-hours |
|---|---|---|
| Laptop, about 50 W | 4 | 200 |
| Flat-screen TV, about 120 W | 3 | 360 |
| Box or window fan, about 55–250 W (say 100) | 8 | 800 |
| Total ÷ 0.85 | about 1,600 Wh | |
Wattages: Virginia Cooperative Extension. Your own devices' labels beat any table.
Then check the watts
Add up everything that will run at the same time: the station's continuous output must be higher. Heat-makers are the ones that catch people out: a microwave draws about 750–1,100 W, a coffee maker 900–1,200 W, a space heater 750–1,500 W. They also empty the tank fast — one tested 1,800-watt station with 890 Wh lasted about half an hour at full draw. Anything with a motor or compressor, like a fridge or a pump, also pulls a short burst several times its running power when it starts; the station's surge rating (tested units ranged from 2 to 8 times their continuous output) has to cover that burst.
Battery type: why LiFePO4 is the default now
LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate, also written LFP) lasts far longer — more than 3,000 charge cycles, against roughly 1,000–2,300 for the older NMC lithium chemistry — and is much less prone to overheating. Its cost is weight: NMC packs hold about twice the energy per kilogram. For a station that sits at home for years, LiFePO4 is the one to want; nearly every station in 2026's price surveys already uses it.
Step 3: Is this a good price?
Power stations: dollars per watt-hour
Divide the price by the capacity in watt-hours. Then compare with the middle of the market for that size — bigger stations cost less per watt-hour, up to about 3,200 Wh.
| Size | Middle of the market (Aug 2026) | A good deal (our line) |
|---|---|---|
| up to 450 Wh | $0.89 per Wh ($890 per kWh) | under about $0.71 per Wh |
| 451–800 Wh | $0.67 per Wh ($670 per kWh) | under about $0.54 per Wh |
| 801–1,600 Wh | $0.52 per Wh ($520 per kWh) | under about $0.42 per Wh |
| 1,601–3,200 Wh | $0.44 per Wh ($440 per kWh) | under about $0.35 per Wh |
| 3,201–7,000 Wh | $0.57 per Wh ($570 per kWh) | under about $0.46 per Wh |
Worked example: a 1,024 Wh station for $399 is $0.39 per Wh — under the $0.42 good-deal line for its size. At $499 it is $0.49: fair, just under the $0.52 middle. At $699 it is $0.68: you are paying for the brand or the features, and that should be a choice, not an accident.
How sure: the medians come from one price survey of 114 US listings on August 28, 2026. Prices in this category fall year after year, so check the date. Our “good deal” line — 20% under the middle — is a rule of thumb, not a market fact.
Solar panels: dollars per watt
Divide the price by the panel's rated watts. Two kinds of panel are sold under the same word, and they sit in different price worlds: folding (portable) panels made to be carried to a power station, and rigid panels made to be bolted to a roof or a van. Folding panels cost more per watt because you pay for the hinge, the case and the kickstand. The deals on this site's power-station shelf are the folding kind.
| Type | Everyday price (2026) | A good deal (our line) | A 600 W set |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folding / portable | about $0.90–1.50 per watt; the cheapest mainstream panels sit at $0.90–1.00 | under about $0.90 per watt | good under about $540 |
| Folding, premium brands | about $1.50–1.80 per watt in stores, up to about $3 at list price | — you pay for the name and a no-adapter fit with the same brand's station | — |
| Rigid, bought one at a time | about $0.70–1.05 per watt | under about $0.70 per watt | good under about $420 |
For scale: panels bought by the pallet for home rooftop systems cost about $0.30–0.50 per watt, which is why a roof system's price per watt says nothing about a camping panel.
The number on the box is a best case. In OutdoorGearLab's direct-sun test, panels delivered 56–91% of their rated watts. Price per real watt is the fairer comparison: a $250 panel rated 200 W that actually makes 177 W costs $1.41 per real watt.
How sure: street prices from two 2026 roundups (GreenSaveHome, May 31; WalkingSolar, March 2) and OutdoorGearLab's July 13 tests. Our good-deal lines sit just under the cheapest everyday prices, so a panel only counts as a deal when it beats what the cheapest mainstream panels cost every day.
Using panels and a station together
- The station sets the limit, not the panel. Every station accepts only so many solar watts and a certain voltage range; tested stations ranged from about 400 W to 2,600 W of solar input. Extra panels past that limit add nothing, and a voltage above the station's range can damage it or be refused.
- Plugs: most panels end in MC4 connectors; stations take XT60, Anderson or a DC barrel. An adapter costs about $25 when the brands don't match.
- Charge time = watt-hours ÷ real panel watts. A 1,000 Wh station on one 200 W panel making about 170 W needs roughly six hours of strong sun; two panels halve that, if the station accepts 400 W. Consumer Reports' advice is to treat solar as a way to stretch the battery, not to count on it — cloud cuts it hard.
Sources
We read these to check the facts and numbers; the words are our own. This is not our specialty, so every number above carries its source.
- Solar Waypoint — Portable Power Station Price Index 2026 (August 28, 2026; 114 US listings, 13 makers, price ÷ base capacity)
- OutdoorGearLab — Best Portable Solar Panels of 2026 (July 13, 2026; output measured in direct sun)
- GreenSaveHome — Best Portable Solar Panels in 2026: Tested and Ranked (May 31, 2026; street prices)
- WalkingSolar — Best Portable Solar Panels Under $200, 2026 Tested and Ranked (March 2, 2026)
- SolarReviews — Best 200-watt solar panels (rigid and portable prices side by side)
- Sunhub — Solar Panel Price Per Watt in 2026 (June 4, 2026; module cost in home systems)
- OutdoorGearLab — The Best Power Stations of 2026 (July 23, 2026; usable capacity measured)
- Consumer Reports — Best Portable Power Stations of 2026 (updated September 2, 2026)
- Virginia Cooperative Extension (Virginia Tech) — Estimating Appliance and Home Electronic Energy Use (appliance wattages, the kWh formula)
- Wikipedia — Lithium iron phosphate battery (cycle life, weight and safety against NMC)