Power Outage While Working From Home? Here's How to Size a Solar Generator That Keeps You Online
Last updated: 2026-07-11
Bottom line up front: Keeping a home office running through a power outage is one of the cheapest backup power problems to solve, because a laptop, a router, and a monitor together draw less than a hair dryer. A Jackery Explorer 1000 (1,002Wh) comfortably runs a full remote workday — laptop, monitor, router, and modem — for 10+ hours on a single charge. If your outages regularly run past a full day, or your setup includes a desktop tower instead of a laptop, step up to the EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max (2,048Wh, expandable) for real multi-day margin.
For most households, a power outage is an inconvenience you wait out. For a remote worker, it's a missed deadline, a dropped client call, or a full PTO day burned because the wifi went down at 9am. Utility companies don't prorate your salary for their outages — but sizing 6–12 hours of backup power for a home office costs less than most people assume, because office equipment is genuinely light-duty compared to the appliances most backup power guides are built around.
Why a Home Office Is an Easy Backup Power Problem
Most backup power planning starts with the refrigerator, the sump pump, or the well pump — appliances that pull hundreds of watts continuously and spike even higher on startup. A home office is the opposite case. A laptop charger draws 45–65W. A 24-inch monitor draws 25–35W. A cable modem and wifi router together draw 15–25W. None of these devices have a meaningful startup surge, so you don't need to oversize for a motor spike the way you would for a sump pump or refrigerator compressor.
The one exception is a desktop computer, which draws considerably more than a laptop and changes the sizing math — covered separately below.
What a Home Office Actually Draws
Confirm your own gear against the label or a plug-in watt meter, but these are reliable planning numbers for typical setups.
| Device | Typical Draw | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Laptop (charging + running) | 45–65W | Most 13–16" business laptops |
| External monitor (24–27") | 25–35W | LED/LCD; larger or curved monitors draw more |
| Cable modem | 8–12W | Runs continuously |
| Wifi router | 6–10W | Runs continuously |
| Desktop tower (mid-range) | 150–250W | No dedicated GPU; add 100–150W for gaming/creative GPUs |
| Desk lamp (LED) | 8–15W | |
| Phone charger | 5–10W | |
| Small space heater or fan | 300–1,500W | Excluded from sizing below — see note |
A typical laptop-based home office — laptop, monitor, modem, router, lamp, and phone charger — draws roughly 100–135W continuously. That's a small fraction of what most backup power guides plan around, which is exactly why this is one of the more forgiving sizing problems in home backup power.
One important exclusion: space heaters and fans draw far more than everything else on this list combined, and running one will blow through your runtime math fast. Size your backup for the office equipment itself, and treat comfort heating or cooling as a separate problem — extra layers, a battery-powered fan, or simply a shorter workday if the outage runs long.
Sizing for a Laptop Setup
At 120W continuous draw (laptop, monitor, modem, router, and incidentals), a 1,000Wh power station delivers roughly 7–8 hours of runtime once you account for the 10–15% conversion loss between DC battery storage and the AC power most office gear plugs into. That's a full standard workday on a single charge, with enough margin that you're not watching the battery percentage during an afternoon client call.
Jackery Explorer 1000 — 1,002Wh capacity, 1,000W AC output
This is the right-sized pick for a one-laptop home office. It's quiet (no fan noise to worry about on video calls), light enough to move between rooms, and its 1,000W continuous output has huge headroom over a 120W office load — meaning it runs cool and isn't working hard, which also means the battery isn't being stressed under load. Recharge it via wall outlet before the next outage, or add a portable solar panel if outages tend to stretch past a day.
If two people in the household work remotely at the same time — two laptops, two monitors, shared router — double the continuous draw to roughly 220–260W. The Jackery Explorer 1000 still handles this, just with runtime closer to 3.5–4 hours instead of 7–8, so a second unit or a larger-capacity station is worth considering for a two-income remote household.
Sizing for a Desktop Setup
A desktop tower changes the math meaningfully. A mid-range desktop without a dedicated graphics card draws 150–250W on its own — before adding a monitor, router, and modem on top. A gaming or creative workstation with a GPU can push 300–450W or more under load.
EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max — 2,048Wh capacity, 2,400W AC output, expandable
For a desktop-based home office (tower at 200W, monitor at 30W, router and modem at 20W — roughly 250W total), this delivers close to 7 hours of runtime, and its 2,400W continuous rating means it isn't strained even by a workstation-class desktop with a GPU under load. It's also expandable with an additional battery module if your outages regularly run past a single workday, which matters more for desktop setups than laptop ones given the higher baseline draw.
If your outages are rare and short, a laptop is inherently easier to back up than a desktop — it's worth keeping in mind the next time a hardware refresh is on the table, even if switching isn't practical right now.
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