Home backup · 120 V essentials

A station can keep a kitchen useful. It cannot impersonate the utility.

The product is a battery on the floor or counter, feeding cords you can see. It is not a silent 20 kW plant. Use it for fridge, network, lights, and medical loads that fit 120 V. Stop before central air.

Summary

The fridge is 150 watts. A ~2 kWh, 120 V portable power station is home backup for that load plus the network and a CPAP — not central air, not a 240 V well. Below is what runs, what fails, and the one wiring rule that keeps a lineman alive.

In this ledger

1. What “home backup” means on this desk
2. What usually works
3. What usually fails
4. No backfeed
5. Named stations for this job
6. How a night actually goes
7. This page is for you if
8. Leave this page if

What “home backup” means on this desk

Home backup, on thehomebackup.com, is a fork. A pad generator can carry a house if you pay for the install. An expandable 120/240 V battery can feed an inlet if you size voltage honestly. A portable power station covers what you can point at with a cord. Mix those three machines into one purchase and you buy the wrong one.

This page is the cord version. The featured class is ~2 kWh, 120 V, lithium iron phosphate: Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus, BLUETTI AC200L, Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2. Job-based picks: best portable power stations. Sizing math: buying guide. We do not repeat those rankings here. This page is about the house.

Tesla Powerwall and rooftop solar are out of scope. EcoFlow is not a featured partner (7-day cookie). Featured hops: Jackery, BLUETTI, Anker SOLIX. Disclosure.

What usually works

• Refrigerator / freezer. The core job. Running watts are modest. Starting watts are the test. Your own compressor is the experiment. Jackery lists 3,000 W continuous. BLUETTI and Anker list 2,400 W. Only Anker printed 4,000 W peak in this set. Jackery and BLUETTI surge stay blank because the live pages were unclear or conflicting.
• ONT, cable modem, Wi-Fi, phones, laptops. Small, steady, high-value. Keep the network on a dedicated outlet so someone does not unplug it for a kettle. A 2 kWh pack can cover electronics for a long time if you do not add heat.
• CPAP. Often happier on DC than on a cheap inverter. Ask the device maker. Size watt-hours to the night plus margin. This is not medical advice. If the machine is life-critical, you need a plan that does not depend on a sale price and a USB-C guess.
• LED lighting. Cheap in watts, expensive in morale. A lantern plus a few lamps beats a dark house. Incandescent space-heat bulbs are a waste of the tank.
• A well pump only if voltage and surge match. Many residential wells are 240 V. A 120 V station will not run them. If the well is 240 V, leave this page for the Anker SOLIX F3800 or a standby generator.

Keep the list short. Every extra load is a shorter fridge. Close the refrigerator door. Skip the hair dryer. Eat the ice cream early if you must, but do not run a chest freezer and a space heater off the same 2 kWh brick and call it a house plan.

What usually fails

• Central air or a large heat pump on a 120 V, ~2 kWh box. The compressor will not start, or it will empty the tank in a single cycle. This is not a firmware setting.
• Electric dryers, ranges, tankless electric water. 240 V, high watts, or both. A station in this class is the wrong tool.
• Whole-home space heating used as a battery dump. 1,500 W into ~2,000 Wh is a short evening. Wear a sweater. If heat is the job, you wanted gas backup or a much larger system.
• Any load behind a generator interlock you have not labeled and tested. Unmarked breakers are how people energize the wrong circuit, or none. Walk the panel in daylight. Label the essentials. Test the inlet before the storm, not during it.
• Sump pumps on a prayer. Some are 120 V and modest. Some are not. Read the plate. If the basement floods when the pump dies, do not discover the wattage at midnight.

If the house itself has to stay alive — furnace, well, air handler, maybe one condenser — you are in silo 1 or silo 2, not a kitchen-counter station. Start at whole-house generators or expandable home batteries.

No backfeed

Do not backfeed a dryer outlet. Do not build a suicide cord. Do not energize the service entrance through a range receptacle because a video made it look tidy. That can kill a lineman and burn a house. It is also illegal in normal US jurisdictions.

Legal paths look boring:

1. Cords you can see. Station in the kitchen or hallway. Fridge, ONT, and lamps on rated extension cords. This is the default for a 2 kWh case. No panel work.
2. Inlet box plus interlock. An electrician installs a male inlet and a listed interlock on the breaker panel so you cannot backfeed the utility. You still size 120 V vs 240 V. A 120 V station will not feed 240 V legs.
3. Listed transfer switch. Same idea, more circuits, still licensed work.

Pay the electrician. The Home Backup is not your AHJ, and this paragraph is not a permit. If that sentence feels like too much project, stay on cords. A corded fridge is a successful outage. A charred panel is not.

Named stations for this job

Official photos. Specs from manufacturer pages dated August 26, 2026. Full reviews are linked from the cards’ sibling pages in this silo.

Official manufacturer photos. Specs and street prices from the linked product pages, checked August 26, 2026.

All three are 120 V. All three are ~2 kWh on day one. Use them as kitchen machines, not as pad plants.

• Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus — 2,042.8 Wh, 3,000 W, 61.5 lb, Battery Pack 2000 Plus, $899 (was $2,199). Surge blank.
• BLUETTI AC200L — 2,048 Wh, 2,400 W, 62.4 lb, expandable to 8,192 Wh, $899. Surge blank. More 120 V hours later, not 240 V.
• Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 — 2,048 Wh, 2,400 W, 4,000 W peak, 41.7 lb, up to 4 kWh, $999.99. Lightest carry into a kitchen. Still 120 V.

If you outgrow cords and you need split-phase, that is the F3800 in the home-battery silo, not a bigger 120 V explorer. Brand differences: Jackery vs BLUETTI vs Anker SOLIX.

How a night actually goes

Charge the station on the wall while the grid is up. Park it where you can see the display. When the lights drop, do not start every appliance. Start the fridge. Start the ONT. Light the room. Then stop and look at the watt reading.

If you have portable panels, they do nothing at night. Unfold them at dawn, aim them, and fold them before hail. Yield is weather. A 200 W SolarSaga or SP200L is a trickle compared with a 2 kWh tank. A 400 W PS400 is heavier and still not a roof. Panel silo: portable solar panels. Matching: panel buying guide. Named folders: best portable solar panels.

Multi-day events are extra batteries plus discipline, or they are a generator. 8,192 Wh on the AC200L path is a lot of 120 V fridge time. It is still not central air. 4 kWh on the Anker 120 V path is a longer kitchen, not a well. The Jackery extra pack is a second tank, not a transfer switch. Write your three loads down tonight. Test the compressor before the sky does it for you.

Silo hub: portable power stations.