How Many Watts Do I Need for Camping?

Most camping loads are so small that people over-buy by a factor of three. Two items change that completely, and knowing which ones is the whole exercise.

By Sawyer V.Updated September 11, 2026Published September 11, 2026How we work this out

Camping tents pitched on ground near evergreen trees.

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Watts or watt-hours? Both, and they answer different questions

Watts is the biggest thing you can run at one instant. For camping this is almost never the constraint, because almost nothing you bring is large.

Watt-hours is how much you can run across the trip. This is nearly always the constraint, and it is what the arithmetic below works out.

The exceptions — the items that make watts the constraint — are an electric kettle, a coffee maker, a microwave in an RV and an air conditioner. If none of those are on your list, size for watt-hours and ignore the inverter rating.

The daily arithmetic

Build your own total from this. Most people are surprised how low it lands.

Item	Per day	Notes
Two phones	About 30 Wh	Roughly 15 Wh per full charge
Headlamps and a lantern	Under 20 Wh	Most run on their own cells for days
Tablet or e-reader	10-40 Wh	An e-reader is negligible
Camera batteries, two	30-50 Wh	More for video
Laptop	50-200 Wh	Depends entirely on hours of use
Starlink or a mobile hotspot	250-1,000 Wh	The quiet giant — check yours before assuming
CPAP, no humidifier	250-350 Wh per night	The humidifier can double it
12V compressor fridge	250-600 Wh	Strongly dependent on ambient temperature
String lights, LED	20-50 Wh	Four hours an evening
Electric kettle, one boil	About 100 Wh	But needs 1,500 W of inverter to do it

Device figures come from typical battery capacities; CPAP, fridge and connectivity ranges are the bands used across this site. Your fridge figure depends heavily on how hot it is.

Three worked trips

Trip	Daily total	Three nights needs
Tent, two people, phones and lights	About 70 Wh	About 210 Wh — a 292Wh battery, no panel
Car camping with a laptop and camera	About 200 Wh	About 600 Wh — 572Wh plus a panel, or 1,000Wh
Van with a 12V fridge and a CPAP	About 800 Wh	About 2,400 Wh — 1,000Wh plus 200W of panel

The third row is the useful lesson. Once a fridge and a CPAP are both on the list, the battery alone stops being the answer and a panel becomes part of the plan rather than an accessory.

Add the losses, then round up

Two adjustments turn a total into a purchase.

Take about 15% off the battery's rating. Inverter conversion is not free, so a 500Wh battery delivers roughly 425Wh of AC. DC output through the car socket or USB is more efficient, which is one reason 12V fridges are worth the fuss.

Then add a margin. Trips run long, weather turns, and somebody always brings something you did not plan for. Twenty percent is reasonable.

Where solar actually helps

The honest thresholds, using the 400-500Wh per 100W of panel figure this site uses for a good summer day.

One or two nights: no panel. The battery covers it and the panel is dead weight.
Three to five nights: 100W of panel turns a 500Wh battery into something that lasts indefinitely for a modest load.
A week or more with a fridge: 200W minimum, and expect to move the panel through the day.
Under trees: assume a fraction of those figures. Shade is the constraint solar handles worst.

What to leave at home

The cheapest watt-hour is the one you do not use, and camping is the easiest place to apply that.

Anything with a heating element — kettle, coffee maker, toaster, hair dryer — is both a huge instantaneous draw and a meaningful chunk of a camping battery. A propane stove boils water for a fraction of the fuss; the cooking page covers the options.

The camping power station roundup covers the units, and the camping and RV scenario page works through the RV case where air conditioning changes everything.

The short version

Most tent trips are under 100 Wh a day. 292Wh covers a long weekend.
A fridge or a CPAP roughly doubles it. Those two items set the size.
Take 15% off for inverter losses, then add 20% margin.
Past three nights, buy a panel rather than a bigger battery.

Quick picks

#	Product	Best for	Price
1	Enough for most trips Jackery Explorer 300 292Wh, light enough to carry in one hand.	Devices, lights and a camera over a long weekend	$259.00 · Check price on Amazon #ad how this is funded · price as of October 20, 2026 · $289.00 10% off
2	The fridge and CPAP size EcoFlow RIVER 3 Max 572Wh of LiFePO4 with 500W output and a one-hour wall recharge.	Either of the two loads that change the answer	$318.99 · Check price on Amazon #ad how this is funded · price as of October 20, 2026 · $399.00 20% off
3	What makes a long trip work Jackery SolarSaga 100W Air 100W of folding panel that packs flat against a seat back.	Trips past three days	$249.00 · Check price on Amazon #ad how this is funded · price as of October 20, 2026 · $299.00 17% off
4	When watts matter, not watt-hours Honda EU2200i 1,800 running watts at 48 to 57 dBA, parallel-capable.	An RV air conditioner or a coffee maker	$1,199.00 · Check price on Amazon #ad how this is funded · price as of October 20, 2026

Prices come from the retailer at page-build time and change constantly. Where no live price is available the button reads “Check price” rather than showing a number we cannot stand behind.

The picks in full

01 — Enough for most trips

Jackery Explorer 300

292Wh, light enough to carry in one hand.

Work through the arithmetic below and a startling number of trips come in under 150 watt-hours a day. 292Wh covers three days of that without any solar at all.

The honest catch: nothing with a heating element runs on this. No kettle, no coffee maker, no heater.

Skip it ifyou bring a 12V fridge. That roughly doubles the daily requirement.

$259.00 · Check price on Amazon

#ad how this is funded · price as of October 20, 2026 · $289.00 10% off

Published specifications for the Jackery Explorer 300
Specification	Published figure
Usable capacity	292 Wh
AC output	300 W
Class	Small station for electronics, lights and a CPAP

Source: Jackery — Explorer 300 product page. These are the manufacturer's published figures, not ours — we have not tested this unit.

02 — The fridge and CPAP size

EcoFlow RIVER 3 Max

572Wh of LiFePO4 with 500W output and a one-hour wall recharge.

572Wh is roughly one day of a 12V fridge in warm weather, or two nights of a CPAP without humidifier. Those are the two items that move people out of the 300Wh band.

The one-hour recharge matters if you have shore power at any point in the trip — a single stop refills it completely.

The honest catch: a compact case. Noticeably heavier than the pick above, which matters if you carry it any distance.

Skip it ifyour list is devices only. Then you are carrying weight you do not need.

$318.99 · Check price on Amazon

#ad how this is funded · price as of October 20, 2026 · $399.00 20% off

Published specifications for the EcoFlow RIVER 3 Max
Specification	Published figure
Usable capacity	572 Wh
AC output	990 W
Class	Compact station for electronics, lights and a CPAP

Source: EcoFlow — RIVER 3 Max listing. These are the manufacturer's published figures, not ours — we have not tested this unit.

03 — What makes a long trip work

Jackery SolarSaga 100W Air

100W of folding panel that packs flat against a seat back.

Past about three days the question stops being capacity and becomes refill, and a panel is the only answer that does not involve driving somewhere.

Be realistic: 100W of panel returns roughly 400-500Wh across a good summer day, and far less under trees — the panel arithmetic page explains why.

The honest catch: a shaded campsite is the worst case for solar, and shaded campsites are the nice ones.

Skip it ifyou are out for two nights. The battery alone covers that.

$249.00 · Check price on Amazon

#ad how this is funded · price as of October 20, 2026 · $299.00 17% off

Published specifications for the Jackery SolarSaga 100W Air
Specification	Published figure
Rated output	100 W
Cell type	Bifacial monocrystalline
Compatibility	Jackery Explorer stations

Source: Jackery — SolarSaga 100W Air listing. These are the manufacturer's published figures, not ours — we have not tested this unit.

04 — When watts matter, not watt-hours

Honda EU2200i

1,800 running watts at 48 to 57 dBA, parallel-capable.

One load flips camping from a watt-hours problem to a watts problem, and it is air conditioning. No camping-sized battery starts a roof unit.

The honest catch: many campgrounds restrict generator hours or ban them, and the restriction usually covers exactly the hours you would want cooling.

Skip it ifyou are tent camping. A generator in a campground is a neighbor problem.

$1,199.00 · Check price on Amazon

#ad how this is funded · price as of October 20, 2026

Published specifications for the Honda EU2200i
Specification	Published figure
Output	2,200 W max / 1,800 W rated
Type	Inverter (pure sine wave)
Noise	48–57 dB(A)
Weight	47.4 lb
Tank	0.95 gal
Run time	up to 8.1 h on a full tank
Features	Eco Throttle, CO-Minder, Bluetooth app monitoring

Source: Honda Power Equipment — EU2200i specifications. These are the manufacturer's published figures, not ours — we have not tested this unit.

How these were chosen

We did not test these. Nobody at Watt & Warden has plugged one in. What we did instead: read the manufacturer's published specifications, compile them into a table where the figures line up, and compute the numbers manufacturers leave out — runtime against a real appliance load, and what an hour of running actually costs.

Anything that could not be sourced was left out rather than estimated, and every pick names the buyer who should skip it. The full method is here, including where it is weaker than a publisher with a test bench.

Questions people actually ask

How many watts do I need for camping?

For most tent trips, far fewer than people buy. Two phones, headlamps and a lantern total under 100 watt-hours a day, which a 292Wh battery covers for three nights with no solar. Watts only becomes the constraint if you bring an electric kettle, a coffee maker or an air conditioner.

What size power station do I need for a weekend of camping?

Around 300Wh for devices, lights and a camera. Add a 12V fridge or a CPAP and the daily requirement roughly doubles, which pushes you to 500Wh or beyond. Work out your own daily total, take 15% off the battery rating for inverter losses, then add about 20% margin.

Do I need a solar panel for camping?

Not for one or two nights -- the battery covers it and the panel is dead weight. From three to five nights, 100W of panel makes a 500Wh battery effectively indefinite for a modest load. For a week with a fridge, 200W minimum, and expect much less under trees.

How much power does a 12V camping fridge use?

Between 250 and 600 watt-hours a day, depending strongly on ambient temperature and how often the lid opens. It is one of only two items that typically move a camper out of the 300Wh band -- the other being a CPAP, which uses 250 to 350Wh a night without a humidifier.

Can I use an electric kettle while camping?

Only with a battery whose inverter delivers 1,500W, which rules out most camping-sized units. Even then a single boil is about 100 watt-hours, a meaningful chunk of a small battery. A propane stove does the same job for a fraction of the weight and cost.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from a published source. We have not tested this equipment, so the specifications are the manufacturer's and the statistics are the dataset's — the arithmetic on top of them is ours, and it is shown in full so you can check it. How we work this out.