Nomadic Habitat

How We Choose the Gear We Recommend

When we recommend a power station, a solar panel or any other piece of gear, we want you to know exactly what that recommendation is based on. This page explains how we pick products, where the numbers come from, and what we don’t claim. Our About page covers how we research the rest of the site.

What we look for

We start with the job the gear has to do in a van, not with a list of products. For power, that means a fridge running all day, a fan at night and devices to charge, so we group stations by size (about 500, 1,000 and 2,000 Wh) and compare like with like. Then we look at:

  • Fit for the job. Enough capacity for a typical day at that size, and enough output (watts) for the appliances people actually run in a van.
  • The things that matter on the road. Weight, how fast it recharges from a wall, a car or solar, and how much solar input it accepts.
  • Long-term value. Battery chemistry and rated charge cycles. The power stations we compare use LiFePO4 batteries, which are rated for thousands of cycles.
  • Whether you can actually buy it. We leave out models that are sold out when we check, even if the specs look good. For example, we left two BLUETTI 500 Wh models out of our comparison because they were out of stock on BLUETTI’s US store.

Where our numbers come from

  • Specs come from the manufacturer, and we compare them with retailer spec sheets. When the sources disagree, we leave the number out rather than guess.
  • Prices are dated. Prices change daily, so when we show one, we say when we checked it. On our Black Friday deals page, we wrote down prices before the sales started so you can tell whether a “sale” is a real discount.
  • Our tools show their working. The van power calculator uses typical appliance draws that you can change, and the page explains every assumption, from inverter losses to how much sun a panel really gets.

What we don’t claim

  • We say when we haven’t tested something. Most of our gear guides compare published specs rather than our own hands-on testing, and those pages say so near the top. We don’t describe a product as “tested” unless we tested it.
  • We don’t invent experiences. You won’t find made-up road trips, testimonials or “we’ve used this for years” stories here.
  • We don’t promise results. Runtimes and solar output depend on your gear, the weather and how you use it, so we give realistic ranges and explain what changes them.

Nomadic Habitat is free to read because we earn commissions through affiliate links. We’re a member of the Amazon Associates program, and we work with brands like BLUETTI, Renogy and Harvest Hosts through the Awin and Impact affiliate networks. When you buy through one of our links, the retailer may pay us a commission at no extra cost to you.

Commissions don’t decide what we recommend. Every page with affiliate links says so at the top, and links to a brand’s own store are marked the same way as links to Amazon.

Corrections and updates

Specs, prices and availability change often. Each guide shows when it was last updated, and we revise pages when a product changes or a better option appears. If you spot something wrong or out of date, please tell us and we’ll fix it.