About Battery Backup Lab

Battery Backup Lab is an independent reference site for home backup power in the United States and Canada — home battery systems, portable power stations, and the appliances people actually need to keep running through an outage.

We started this site after reading hundreds of owner reviews and forum threads about backup gear that disappointed at the worst moment: batteries that drained themselves on standby, inverters that couldn't start a sump pump the spec sheet said they could, "3-night" CPAP batteries that lasted one night with the humidifier on. Almost every disappointment traced back to the same root: the buying decision was made on incomplete numbers. Our job is to publish complete ones.

Where our data comes from

• U.S. Department of Energy / Energy.gov appliance energy tables;
• Manufacturer specification sheets for common US/Canada household models;
• Published generator-sizing charts from Generac, Honda and Champion (the industry's standard references for starting-watt figures);
• Owner-reported measurements from DIY power communities, used as a sanity check on the published figures — never as the primary source.

Every appliance entry shows a typical value and a low–high range, because appliances vary. Where a figure is inherently model-specific — a critical medical device, a well pump — we say so and tell you to measure your own unit.

Independence rules

• We do not sell, stock or ship any product.
• No manufacturer pays for placement, ranking or wording — on any page, ever.
• Where the site links to retailers, links may be affiliate links: the price you pay is unchanged, and any commission never changes what the data says. The math comes first; the link comes after.
• Every factual figure must trace to a named source or a stated measurement. If we can't source it, we don't publish it.

Corrections

If you find a figure that doesn't match your measured reality, we want to know — measured corrections make the database better for everyone. Write to hello@batterybackuplab.com with your model number and how you measured, and we'll review it against our sources.