When the power goes out on a workday, the meeting does not move. Keeping a home office running through an outage is one of the most achievable backup-power jobs there is — the loads are small, and the math is friendly. This guide works through what a typical work-from-home setup actually draws, how much battery that takes for a full workday, and which stations our calculator counts as full matches.
What a home office draws
A realistic work-from-home setup: a laptop at about 60 W, one external monitor at about 30 W, a Wi-Fi router at about 10 W, and an LED desk lamp at about 10 W. That is roughly 110 W in total — less than a refrigerator’s compressor surge, and it runs at a steady, predictable rate.
The math for an 8-hour workday
110 W × 8 hours = 880 Wh of energy. Accounting for conversion losses (÷ 0.85) and adding a 20% reserve (× 1.20), you need a station rated at about 1,242 Wh to cover a full workday with margin. Runtime figures are calculated estimates, not guarantees — your laptop’s draw varies with workload, and screen brightness and video calls push it up.
One honest caveat: powering your router does not guarantee internet service. If your provider’s equipment on the street or in the neighborhood loses power too, your connection can drop even with your router running. Many outages are local enough that the provider stays up — but a battery cannot promise it.
Stations that cover the workday
Our sizing calculator counts a station as a full match for this preset when it can carry the full 110 W load for 8 hours with reserve. Three solid options at different prices:
BLUETTI AC180 (1,152 Wh) — the budget route. It meets the workday at best-case efficiency, with little reserve to spare, so it suits shorter days or a laptop-only setup best. $499 at BLUETTI.
EcoFlow DELTA 3 (1,024 Wh) — compact and fast-charging, a good fit if the station also needs to move around the house. Check its runtime bars on the product page against your own loads before relying on a full 8 hours. $629 at Amazon.
Jackery HomePower 1000 Plus v2 (1,024 Wh) — built for home backup duty, with the same sizing caveat as any ~1 kWh station: fine for a laptop-led setup, tighter with a big monitor and a full day of calls. $669 at Jackery.
If your workday is longer, your monitor setup is bigger, or you want the fridge on the same station, step up a class — the calculator’s work-from-home preset lists every full match with its reserve level.
Work through your own numbers in the sizing calculator, and compare all 20 stations we track on the products page.
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