Guide
Work out how many hours a portable power station can keep your fridge running in an outage, using the EnerGuide number on your fridge. Worked examples included.
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Short answer: a 1,000 Wh power station kept indoors will run a typical fridge for roughly 15–20 hours. A small 300 Wh unit manages around 4–5 hours. The exact number depends on your fridge, and you can work it out in two minutes using a number that’s already printed on it.
Every fridge sold new in Canada comes with a yellow-and-black EnerGuide label showing its annual energy use in kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year. If the sticker’s gone, search your fridge’s model number plus “EnerGuide” or check the manual.
That annual figure already accounts for the compressor cycling on and off, so it’s a far better guide than the wattage on the back of the fridge.
Divide the annual kWh by 365 to get kWh per day, then multiply by 1,000 for watt-hours:
400 kWh/year ÷ 365 ≈ 1.1 kWh per day ≈ 1,100 Wh per day
That’s an average of about 46 W, around the clock.
A power station never delivers its full rated capacity to a fridge. Two things eat into it:
So usable energy ≈ rated capacity × 0.9 × 0.85.
Hours of runtime = usable energy ÷ average fridge draw. Here’s how that works out for the models we cover, using the 400 kWh/year example fridge, with each unit kept in a heated room:
| Power station | Rated capacity | Usable (approx.) | Fridge runtime (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| BLUETTI Elite 30 V2 | 288 Wh | 220 Wh | ~4.8 hours |
| EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus | 1,024 Wh | 783 Wh | ~17 hours |
| Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 | 1,070 Wh | 818 Wh | ~18 hours |
Rated capacities are from each manufacturer’s spec sheet. These are planning estimates, not measurements — build in a margin.
Want to include the furnace fan, lights or internet too? The winter runtime calculator does all of this for you and compares every model at once.
Cycle the fridge. Health Canada says an unopened fridge keeps food cold for about 4 hours. Instead of running it nonstop, you can run it for a stretch, unplug it, and plug it back in later. That can more than double how long a power station lasts. A cheap fridge thermometer lets you keep it at or below 4°C, the temperature Health Canada recommends.
Keep the doors shut. Every opening lets cold air out and makes the compressor work harder.
Leave the freezer alone. A full freezer keeps food frozen for about 48 hours on its own, and a half-full one about 24. Prioritize the fridge.
Keep the power station warm. Batteries deliver noticeably less energy when cold, and most won’t recharge below 0°C. Keep the unit in a heated room and run a heavy-duty extension cord to the fridge. Here’s why cold charging matters.
For a fridge alone, any unit around 1,000 Wh with at least 1,000 W of output handles the compressor’s startup surge and gets you through a night. If you also want the furnace fan running, you need more — see running a furnace on a power station.
Best for: Grab-and-go backup and three-season camping
Keep it indoors below freezing
Enough capacity for a typical fridge overnight, and lighter than the EcoFlow if you’ll move it around. Jackery rates it to operate down to −10°C, so keep it inside the heated part of the house.
Best for: Home backup and cabins that need to run bigger loads
Cold limits not published
Similar capacity, but more output (1,800 W) and the option to add batteries — worth it if a fridge is only the start of your outage plan.
See all our picks in best power stations for a winter power outage.
For a typical fridge rated around 400 kWh per year on its EnerGuide label, roughly 17 hours of continuous running with the unit kept indoors. A more efficient fridge runs longer, an older one shorter. Use the steps on this page with your fridge's own EnerGuide number.
While the compressor is running, many household fridges draw somewhere around 100–200 W, with a brief spike when the compressor starts. Because the compressor cycles on and off, the average draw over a day is much lower — the EnerGuide annual kWh figure divided by 8,760 hours gives you that average.
Health Canada says an unopened refrigerator keeps food cold for about 4 hours, a full freezer keeps food frozen for about 48 hours, and a half-full freezer for about 24 hours. Keep the doors closed as much as possible.
No. Because an unopened fridge stays cold for a few hours, you can run it for a while, unplug it, and plug it back in later. That can stretch a small power station a long way — just keep an eye on the temperature with a fridge thermometer.
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