Despite what the corporate overlords might shout on high, work from home is an excellent way to reclaim some of your freedom. Not because you can slack off and ruin your productivity, which is frankly a load of horseshit, but because you have the freedom to work from virtually anywhere. You don’t have to be stuck behind a desk inside some musty office or cubicle. You can take your work to a local coffee shop, into your backyard or an outdoor area, or even off-grid — though you’ll need to keep a semblance of connection so you can use the internet. But the problem with doing that is you’re still tethered to traditional power.
You need power for your laptop, power for an external display, and whatever other gear your WFH setup requires. But, to give my real world experience as an example, while I have a nice covered patio in my backyard, I don’t have many power outlets spaced throughout the area. I’m willing to bet that’s true for your backyard, as well. It may even be true for wherever you’re planning to work. Like, say, the beach? That’s where a portable power station comes into play.
What are portable power stations?
As the name describes, portable power stations are small, electric-like power systems — similar to a generator — that allow you to power varying gadgets and gizmos. There are a ton of brands that make them, including EcoFlow, BLUETTI, VTOMAN, Jackery and more. These advanced batteries store energy, power and charge devices, and accept charges through various methods. We’ll get to that last part in a bit.
To build some context, I have several, and I have used several. I have the EcoFlow DELTA 2, a BLUETTI Elite 200 V2, and a smaller BLUETTI EB3A. I’m satisfied with all of them and they all serve different purposes. The EB3A is more portable, so it’s great to take with us on road trips and help keep our phones and the kids’ tablets charged — the latter is a big deal, trust me. The other two power stations I use at home, and I keep them charged when I know a hurricane is heading our way. Sometimes, I’ll even use them as an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for my modem and router.
What are portable power stations used for?
The end-all use for them is during an outage or blackout of some kind. That could be during a hurricane, a major storm or during an emergency. You can also connect solar panels to most power stations and charge them via the sun’s energy. Of course, that doesn’t work at night, but during the day it’s an excellent way to get everything recharged again, even when you’re completely off-grid.
They also make excellent off-grid lifestyle companions. That’s especially true if you’re living in a van, RV, or camping in the great outdoors for a while. The solar compatibility means you don’t have to be anywhere near a power outlet to charge them up, and generally, there are multiple ways to charge them. You can use both AC and DC inputs, solar, and sometimes more. So, you could use your vehicle or RV to charge them if you need it done quickly.
They can power small electronics, small appliances like mini refrigerators or cooking systems, TVs, power tools, audio equipment, you name it. Say you’re having a flash party out in the middle of the woods? You still need music and some great light effects. A power station can help you sustain it all, especially if you get one with a large capacity.
What does any of this have to do with work from home?
You can probably see where I’m going with this already. Because portable power stations are an exceptional source of on-demand, anywhere-use energy, they are phenomenal for work from home setups. My BLUETTI Elite 200 powers my laptop, an external keyboard and mouse, a secondary display, all the adapters needed to make that happen, and usually a Bluetooth speaker for some tunes. I may also plug my phone in when it needs a charge, while all of that other stuff remains connected.
The BLUETTI Elite 200 V2 is a beast. With a 2,073-watt-hour capacity, 2,600 Watts of AC output, and a plethora of ports, it can power many devices at once. It works well for my WFH setup, and I usually sit outside from about 8 AM to 7 or 8 PM. It lasts that long, powering all of my gear with plenty of room to spare. At the end of an evening, it sits at just under 40% battery charge left.
That’s plenty of power, time, and freedom to work from pretty much anywhere you want. Moreover, the power stations allow me to move around my backyard area as well. I don’t have to plop down in the same place every day, which is enough variety to make me a happy camper. If you don’t want to work outside, you can still make use of them to work from a room or area where there’s no outlets nearby. For instance, a sun room in the back of the house or a finished loft.
Of course, this entire scenario could apply to many other applications besides work from home. You could use a power station to keep your parties and barbecues going, to charge or power your tools during a DIY project, at the beach to keep your devices charged — like an eReader — and so on.
The sky’s the limit. Figuratively, even, since you can charge portable power stations with some solar panels and the sun’s UV.
