RV and vandwellers wiki

DRAFT

What's the difference between a portable power supply and a battery?

* a battery is… a battery * a Jackery/Anker/Bluetti is

• a battery
• [inverter](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:inverter)
• [solar charge controller](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:solar:charge_controller)
• etc

Folks that pay attention (read specs, understand their own use case) will have good results with both DIY and all-in-ones. Folks that throw credit cards at Amazon while wishing/hoping real hard for a magic solution will likely be disappointed with either approach.

what's the advantage of the Jackery-type devices when car camping?

IMO the main benefit for a weekending car camper is portability, enabling easy charging from grid power. If one [assesses daily power requirements](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:12v:dailypowerrequirements) and buys sufficient battery capacity the unit could be charged at home and used in the field. Easy peasy.

If multi-day demand exceeds capacity then [some type of charging](https://rvwiki.mousetrap.net/doku.php?id=electrical:12v:power_mix#the_ciggy_port) in the field will be required. That can start to get complex and spendy for an infrequent camper.

it sounds like the PPSs offer convenience and safety for people like me who don't know much about eckeltricity?

That is how they are marketed and how they are perceived by the intended target audience.

### my take

If I had to make a general observation I might say that power stations are at their peak usefulness when one can complete the outing on a single charge. If field charging is required the balance starts to tip toward DIY.