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How to Choose a Power Station for Van Life
The Power Station Decision Guide: a no-overwhelm path to knowing exactly what you need. Free, from a woman who runs her whole life off one battery.
The Power Station Decision Guide
Power Basics · Battery Choices · Solar Simplified · The Modular Advantage
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Choose a power station for van life by calculating your daily watt-hours, not by guessing. List the devices you'll actually run, find each one's wattage, multiply by hours used per day, and add a 20% buffer. That one number tells you what size battery you need, how much solar makes sense, and whether the model you've been eyeing is overkill. Most part-time vanlifers land between 1,000 and 1,500 watt-hours. Full-timers usually need 2,000 to 3,500. The guide walks you through the math in about ten minutes.
When I was planning my own launch, the power system was the part that intimidated me most. Watts, amps, volts, AGM, lithium, MPPT controllers. Everyone seemed fluent in a language I didn't speak, and every forum answer contradicted the last one. So I built the guide I needed back then: plain English, real numbers, and a decision path that ends with you knowing exactly what to buy.
What's inside the guide
Power Basics
Volts, amps, and watts explained with a shopping analogy instead of a physics lecture, a common-device wattage cheat sheet, and the worksheet that turns your device list into one daily number. That number is the foundation for every other decision in the guide.
Battery Choices
Portable power stations versus hardwired battery banks, why I only cover the first kind, and a sizing chart that matches battery capacity to how you actually camp. Plus the four mistakes that cost people thousands, including the wiring one that's a genuine fire hazard.
Solar Simplified
How much solar you really need (divide your daily watt-hours by 3 to 4 hours of good sun), the three panel types and who each one fits, and the myths. No, a 100W panel doesn't produce 100W. No, solar won't run your air conditioner.
The Modular Advantage
The removable, take-it-anywhere setup I've used for years, why a portable system costs a fraction of a hardwired build, when hardwired still makes sense, and the specific models I recommend at each size. I also show you my exact setup, down to how I charge while I drive.
By the last page you'll have four decisions made:
- Your daily watt-hour number, calculated from your real devices
- Your power station size category, from the lifestyle chart
- Your charging mix: alternator, solar, shore power, or a combination
- A realistic budget range for the setup that fits your life
Who this guide is for (and who it isn't)
This guide covers portable power stations, because that's what I use and what I know inside-out. Everything is pre-wired and self-contained. You can set it up yourself this weekend, take it with you if you change vehicles, and bring it indoors when you stay with family.
If you're planning a ground-up build with batteries hardwired under the floor and solar wired through the walls, you want a certified RV electrician, not a PDF. I say the same thing inside the guide. Pretending to be an expert in systems I don't use isn't how I operate.
For everyone else: new vanlifers, smaller rigs, anyone who wants power without construction, this is your path. It's the one I've lived for years.
Why listen to me on this
I'm Catina Borgmann, the Van Lifestylist, a Federally Credentialed Enrolled Agent (EA), a federally licensed tax professional, and a full-time solo vanlifer. My setup: a Toyota Sienna minivan, a removable Roadloft kit, and one EcoFlow DELTA 2 charged off my alternator while I drive. My laptop, my lights, my fan, and the occasional rice cooker all run off that single battery, and my business runs off the laptop. Henry, my 9-pound co-pilot, contributes nothing to the power budget.
I bring the same precision to gear decisions that I bring to tax work: calculate first, buy second. This guide is that process, written down.
Quick answers
It depends on how you camp. As a starting point: weekend trips running a phone, laptop, and lights need 250–500 watt-hours. Part-time van life with a portable fridge needs 1,000–1,500 Wh. Full-time or off-grid living needs 2,000–3,500 Wh, and high-power setups running AC or power tools need 3,500 Wh or more.
If you're between two sizes, size up — it's easier to have a little extra capacity than to run out mid-trip. The free Power Station Decision Guide includes the full sizing chart plus the worksheet to calculate your exact daily number.
Yes. Solar is one of three ways to keep a power station charged. The other two are your van's alternator while you drive and shore power when you plug in at a campground or a friend's house. Plenty of vanlifers run on alternator and shore power alone, especially if they drive regularly.
I treat solar as insurance: it keeps you covered when you're parked in one spot for a week or too sick to drive.
For most solo vanlifers, yes. A portable power station is silent, produces no fumes (so it can run inside the van), needs no fuel, and recharges from the sun, your alternator, or a wall outlet.
A gas generator mostly makes sense for sustained high-draw loads that outrun battery capacity, which is a situation most solo vanlifers never hit.
No, and that's the point. A portable power station is pre-wired and self-contained: the battery, inverter, charge controller, and safety systems are all built in. You plug your devices into it the same way you'd plug them into a wall.
If your plans involve hardwired batteries, roof-mounted solar, or splicing into your van's electrical system, that's when I recommend a certified RV electrician.
Yes. Enter your first name and email and the guide lands in your inbox a minute later. It contains affiliate links to gear I actually use, disclosed right up front inside the guide, and I'll send you van life systems content by email afterward. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Stop guessing at watt-hours
Ten minutes with the guide replaces weeks of contradictory forum threads. Your power setup should be a decision, not a leap of faith.
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