How much battery power do you need to run a cooler, laptop, lights and other essentials in a camper van? Use our interactive calculator to estimate how long a portable power station could last based on your battery capacity, appliances and daily usage — and see how solar charging might extend your time off-grid.
For more on camper van power setups, solar panels and lessons learned on the road, read our full camper van guide by Travis Smola.
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How long will your camper van battery last?
Choose your power station, add the appliances you’d use and see how long your setup might last off-grid.
The interactive calculator needs JavaScript. If you can read this, it did not load. The method is simple: multiply each appliance’s watts by its hours of use per day to get watt-hours (Wh). Divide AC appliance energy by about 0.85 to allow for inverter loss. Then divide your battery’s usable capacity (roughly 90% of its rated Wh) by the daily total to estimate days of runtime. These are estimates, not guarantees.
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