It’s never a good time to lose power. Whether it’s a blizzard, storm, or just the wind knocking out a transformer, it’s always inconvenient. One way to make it a little less painful though is to be prepared. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of awesome tech gadgets to make your next power outage a little more bearable.
Obviously, you should get yourself a flashlight, and maybe a LED lamp, but there’s cooler stuff out there whether you’re just looking to keep your phone charged or wanting to keep your gaming session going during the next power outageemergency.
Anker 737 Power Bank
Jackery Explorer 1000
Jackery Explorer 240
Tripp Lite 12 Outlet Surge Protector
Bestek 300W Power Inverter
Mr Heater Big Buddy Portable Heater
Westinghouse 4650 Peak Wattage Portable Generator
BioLite CampStove 2+
Evapolar Evachill Portable Air Conditioner
Solar and Hand Cranked Powered Lantern
Keep your phone charged
The Anker 737 Power Bank is a great choice that will give your phone a little extra juice when it’s running low. It’s capable of completely recharging an iPhone 13 five times. It’s also a great deal right now with almost $60 off it’s regular price.
Power up whatever you need
The Jackery Explorer 1000 can power just about anything you need. It can output 1000 watts of energy from a full charge, which is more than enough to run most appliances during a power outage, even if you feel like playing a gaming console on a large TV.
Enough juice to keep you covered
The Jackery 240 is a great mid-tier option that will keep a family’s worth of laptops, tablets, and phones all charged during your next power outage. It has four different ports to connect devices and weighs only 6.6 pounds.
Protect your most valuable electronics
A surge protector will help protect your devices before and after you lose power. Power outages can often come with electricity spikes that can damage your electronics, while generators also produce power surges that are worth protecting against.This surge protector can protect 12 devices as well as your modem and phone hookups
Use your car’s power battery
Use the power bank that’s sitting under the hood of your car. The Bestek 300W power inverter lets you draw energy from your car battery, with the obvious downside being you can kill your car battery. It outputs 300W of energy which is enough to power enough to charge all your devices and brew a cup of coffee.
Stay warm when you lose power
Keeping your home warm when a blizzard knocks out your power is always a challenge. The Big Boy portable heater uses propane to deliver up to 18,000 BTUs of heat, which is enough to keep a 450 foot space warm. It features built in ports for smaller camping propane tanks or an adapter for propane larger propane tanks like the ones used on grills
A gas generator comes with benefit of offering significantly more power, but with the drawback of needing gas and a potentially harder start-up process. I’ve used this Westinghouse generator for the past three years and have never had a problem with it. This Westinghouse generator packs with 4650 watts of power for 14 hours on a full tank of gas.
Fire up your phone
Charge your phone with the power of fire. The CampStove 2+ has a chamber to start small fires. That fire can be used to cook yourself a meal or provide a little heat. What’s great though is that the CampStove 2+ takes the energy from the heat of the fire and lets you charge your devices.
Stay cool without electricity
This portable air conditioner also functions as a fan and humidifier. It has an eight-hour battery life and weighs only 1.1 pounds. It’s a great choice for people living in warmer climates where hurricanes and tornadoes are a possibility.
Light up your room and charge your phone
This lantern is powered by a 3000mAh capacity battery that’s charged via a built-in solar panels or by a handle that you spin to provide charge. It also has a USB port so you can use it to charge your phone as well. It’s even waterproof.
The best gadgets for power outages
There’s no reason you need to spend your next power outage like a peasant during medieval times fumbling for candles in the dark. There are simple things like flashlights, lanterns, and more that can make losing power more bearable, but there’s no reason to stumble around in the dark anymore. We all have devices like phones, tablets, and laptops that need to be charged during an extended power outage.
The Anker 737 Power Bank is a great way to keep those basic devices charged, but for more power, the Jackery Explorer 240 and 1000 models offer a lot more versatility, as well as extra juice for a longer power outage. The Explorer 240 will keep all your devices charged and has enough power to run a coffee maker, keep a fridge cool, or use a power tool. Meanwhile, the Explorer 1000 can do all of that while powering a PlayStation and TV. The best choice really comes down to how much you’re looking to spend, and what you’re looking to run power too.
How concerned should you be about power outages?
Most Americans experience losing power for seven hours per year, according to theUS Energy Information Administration. Living in an area with severe storms or harsh winters can make that number go much higher. At the end of the day, the wrong tree limb can fall anywhere, and it’s worth being prepared regardless.
Should you consider a gas generator?
If you live in an area where power outages are common, a gas generator may be worth investing in. I’ve had aWestinghouse 4650 Peak Wattage Generatorfor three years, and it’s kept me warm during a few blizzards and kept the basement dry during flooding numerous times. Still, I have a small power bank I use during outages to keep my devices charged.
Generators will provide more power versus similarly priced power banks, but there are drawbacks to a generator though. They require gas, and they are engines that require maintenance. Between the fuel and upkeep, you may end up spending more on a generator over the course of its life than you would on a power bank. Power banks are also much smaller than generators, and a generator needs to be run outside your home, which isn’t ideal if you’ve lost power during winter.
How many watts will you need?
You’ll want to pay attention to how many watts are output by each power bank or generator you’re considering. Luckily, most power banks and generators have it right in the name, like the Jackery 240, Jackery 1000, or the Westinghouse 4650. All the numbers indicate the amount of wattage output you’ll get from each one.
Charging devices doesn’t require much energy. A phone charger only needs 10 watts, while laptops can range from 20 up to 100. So something like the Jackery 240 would be a good option to keep your family’s devices going. Meanwhile, refrigerators, coffee machines, gaming consoles, and TVs all require between 250 and 750 watts, which would make the Jackery 1000 the better choice for powering those. That helped make the Jackery 1000 our top choice forportable power stations. For things like large space heaters and electric ovens, you’ll probably need a generator to run them consistently because of the amount of power they usually require.
What are other basics should you have for an outage?
Power outages are never fun, but they’re easier to deal with if you do some minor planning. Packs offlashlights,LED lanterns, asurge protectorto ensure your devices are safe when power returns, and acoolerfor any perishables you don’t want to go bad, all make losing power much less stressful.
