Power station size for a caravan or camper (worked Wh)

Work out your daily use in watt-hours, add about 15% for losses, then check you can put that much back in every day. For a weekend with a 12V fridge, lights and phones, a station of around 1,000Wh is about right. A caravan with a CPAP machine or a habit of boiling the kettle needs more, or a solid solar setup.

The specs below come from EcoFlow, Bluetti and Jackery's Australian product pages and manuals, linked at the bottom. The appliance figures are examples: your fridge's manual and your devices' labels have the real numbers.

The method

Watts times hours gives watt-hours (Wh). Do that for each thing you'll run, add them up, then divide by 0.85 to cover the energy lost converting the battery's power to 230V or 12V. That 85% is our working assumption, since makers don't all publish an efficiency figure. The answer is the battery size you need for one day.

For a 12V compressor fridge, don't use the running watts on the sticker. It cycles on and off, so look in the manual for its average daily use (often given in amp-hours at 12V; multiply by 12 for watt-hours). Hot weather and a fridge in the sun will push it up. Our runtime calculator does the sums if you'd rather not.

Three worked examples

A weekend camp

A 12V fridge averaging 25W over the day uses 600Wh. Add an LED light strip (10W for 4 hours, 40Wh), two phone charges (about 30Wh) and a small fan (20W for 6 hours, 120Wh). That's 790Wh, or about 930Wh once you divide by 0.85. A 1,000Wh station covers one day and needs topping up each day after that.

A caravan with a CPAP machine

Take the weekend list and add a CPAP. If it draws 40W through the night for 8 hours, that's another 320Wh, for 1,110Wh of use and about 1,300Wh of battery. Check your CPAP's manual for its real draw, which depends a lot on whether the humidifier's on, and whether the maker sells a 12V lead. Running it from a 12V outlet avoids the inverter's losses.

Adding a morning kettle

A 2,000W kettle boiling for 4 minutes uses about 133Wh, which isn't much energy. The problem is power: 2,000W is over the 1,800W rated output of the DELTA 3 Plus and the Elite 100 V2, and well over the 1,500W of the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2. EcoFlow says its X-Boost mode (2,400W on the DELTA 3 Plus's Australian page) runs some heating appliances above the rated output at reduced power, so they work, but more slowly. A low-wattage camping kettle is the simpler fix.

Setup	Daily use	Battery to look at
Weekend camp	About 790Wh	1,000Wh
Caravan with CPAP	About 1,110Wh	1,300Wh or more
Plus a 2,000W kettle	About 1,240Wh	1,500Wh, and check the inverter

Watch the 12V car port

Most 12V fridges plug into the station's car-style socket, and those are limited. EcoFlow rates the DELTA 3 Plus's car port at 12.6V and 10A (126W), Bluetti rates the Elite 100 V2's at 12V and 10A, and Anker rates the SOLIX C1000's at 120W. That's plenty for a compressor fridge, but don't run a fridge and a 12V heater blanket off one socket.

Putting it back in each day

Car charging is the slow option. EcoFlow's manual caps the DELTA 3 Plus's car input at 8A, and Jackery's specs for the Explorer 1000 v2 list 12 to 16V at 8A. From a 12V socket that's roughly 100W, so a five-hour drive puts back about 500Wh at best. That covers a weekend camp's fridge, not much more.

Solar does the heavy lifting on longer trips. The Elite 100 V2 takes up to 1,000W of solar at 12 to 60V, the DELTA 3 Plus takes two 500W inputs, and the Explorer 1000 v2 takes 400W across two 200W ports. Real panels make less than their rating, especially when they're hot, so plan on refilling a 1,000Wh battery with 400 to 500W of panels and a full day of sun. Our solar pairing basics cover how to match panels to a station's voltage and current limits.

Weight matters if you're lifting it in and out of the van. The makers list about 10.8kg for the Explorer 1000 v2, about 11.5kg for the Elite 100 V2 and about 12.5kg for the DELTA 3 Plus. Our EcoFlow vs Bluetti vs Anker SOLIX comparison lines the specs up side by side.

Don't feed your caravan's 230V inlet from a power station without a licensed electrician. A van's mains wiring relies on RCD protection, and the Caravan Industry Association notes RCDs must cut both active and neutral. Energy Safe Victoria says RCDs on circuits fed from an inverter must suit that inverter's output. Whether a given station and van work together safely is a job for an electrician. Until then, plug appliances straight into the station.

Heat and storage on the road

Don't leave the station baking in a closed car or in direct sun. EcoFlow gives the DELTA 3 Plus a charging range of 0 to 45°C and Bluetti gives the Elite 100 V2 0 to 40°C, and an Australian car in summer goes well past both. Keep it in the shade with air around it, and stop charging if it gets hot. The Queensland Fire Department says not to use or charge a lithium-ion battery that's hot, swollen or damaged.

Strap it down while you drive. A 12kg box loose in a van is a hazard in a hard stop, and a dropped battery should be checked before you use it again.

Sources (checked October 2026): EcoFlow AU: DELTA 3 Plus · EcoFlow: DELTA 3 Plus specs · EcoFlow: DELTA 3 Plus user manual · Bluetti AU: Elite 100 V2 · Bluetti: Elite 100 V2 user manual (AU) · Jackery AU: Explorer 1000 v2 · Jackery: Explorer 1000 v2 user manual (AU) · Anker SOLIX AU: C1000 · Caravan Industry Association: RV electrical FAQs · Energy Safe Victoria: Multiple mode inverters and RCD protection · Queensland Fire Department: Lithium-ion battery safety

Where to buy in Australia

Buying from the brand's Australian store means 230V AU outlets, the local warranty and local support. Prices move around a lot, so check on the day.

EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus (1,024Wh)EcoFlow AustraliaSee it at EcoFlow Australia
Bluetti Elite 100 V2 (1,024Wh)Bluetti AustraliaSee it at Bluetti Australia
Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 (1,070Wh)Jackery AustraliaSee it at Jackery Australia