400W Power Bank

It's really hard to know one's power needs up front. There are plenty of websites that have calculations, but unless you're electrical-minded and can figure out your personal devices, it feels like a shot in the dark. Certainly beyond MY skills. So I just jumped in. That's my basic Tiny Home strategy. Start small and jump in, and learn experientially.

So we started out by purchasing this 400W power bank made by Yeti and purchased at MEC. It cost $800, so it did feel like a bit of an investment. But the best part about it is that it is EASY. You use it like an electrical unit in a house. It's a little dark in the picture, so maybe you can't see exactly. This one has 2 AC plug ins, 2 USB plug ins, and a DC cigarette lighter-type plug in. If you plan in advance and use your power bank only on weekends like us, it can be easily charged using an electric plug at our house.

400W is a good size to power LED lights, computers, and phones. In fact, one charge can easily last 2-4 days, depending on usage. However, this size is too small for our 1500W heater (I kinda guessed by the numbers), the electric kettle, or our electric 2 burner stove. So that means it will work well in the summer time when we don't need to heat the home and when we can use our propane stove and cook outside. For those 3 items, we use the single plug in provided to us from our friend's barn.

I do love how there is a digital display and you can see how much power is going in and how much power is going out. For example, I can see that the LED light we use at night to brightly light up the whole room uses only 27W per hour to use, whereas the cord of LED lights I brought for ambiance lighting uses up 39W per hour with way less light output. I can also plug in my electric bed pad at night and use less than 100W for a night of warmth, rather then using the electric heater for the room as often. Next is hooking it up to solar panels!