HomeWhat size power station runs a gas furnace in an outage
A gas furnace needs electricity for its blower: Goodman's spec sheet gives 394 W in heating mode for an 80,000 BTU model, so a 2,048 Wh station such as the Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 runs it for 4.1 hours of blower time. A cold day with 8 blower-hours, a Wi-Fi router, a light and two phone charges needs a station rated at 4,589 Wh.
Battery size you need, rated capacity
4,589Wh
Counts 82% of a battery's rated capacity as usable and adds the inverter's own draw while anything runs on AC: the formula in Jackery's runtime calculator. How the maths works
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Its 4,096 Wh gives 8.2 hours of blower time from an 80,000 BTU furnace and covers 89% of this page's outage day, EcoFlow rates it at 4,000 W continuous and 8,000 W surge, and two extra batteries take it to 12,000 Wh.
Anker rates it at 2,400 W continuous and 4,000 W peak, above the 100,000 BTU furnace's 1,886 VA circuit figure. Its 2,048 Wh gives 4.1 hours from the 80,000 BTU blower and covers 45% of this page's outage day, and it expands to 4,096 Wh.
Its 2,330 Wh gives 4.6 hours from the 80,000 BTU blower and covers 51% of this page's outage day. Dabbsson rates it at 2,200 W continuous and 4,400 W surge, and two DBS3000B batteries take it to 8,330 Wh, more than the 4,589 Wh that day needs.
Jackery rates it at 2,000 W and 4,000 W surge peak, enough for either furnace's circuit figure, and it weighs 31.97 lb. Its 1,536 Wh gives 3.1 hours from the 80,000 BTU blower and covers 33% of this page's outage day.
A gas furnace needs electricity for its blower motor and its inducer motor. Goodman's GR9S96 spec sheet gives two figures for each furnace size:
The runtimes on this page use the blower watts alone. The inducer motor draws power too, so expect a whole furnace to run a station for less time than they show. For choosing a station's output, use the circuit figure, which counts both motors. As a cross-check, the Department of Energy fan energy rating (FER) for these furnaces gives an average blower draw of 350 W and 624 W across heating, cooling and fan-only hours.
Goodman publishes no start-up figure for these furnaces, and a motor can draw more than its running watts for a moment as it starts. To leave headroom, choose a station whose continuous output covers the circuit figure (1,127 VA for the 80,000 BTU model, 1,886 VA for the 100,000 BTU model, counted here as watts). Its peak rating is then higher still.
Peak ratings on this page's picks: 8,000 W on the EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3, 4,400 W on the Dabbsson DBS2300 Plus, and 4,000 W on the Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 and Jackery Explorer 1500 v2. The runtime table below checks only the blower watts, so it shows runtimes for stations this list does not cover, such as 35 minutes on the two 600 W models.
One appliance at a time, from the makers' own figures, counting 82% of each battery as usable plus the inverter's own draw (method).
| Model | Capacity | Furnace 80k BTU, 394 W394 W | Furnace 100k BTU, 659 W659 W | Fridge 21 cu ft, 45.5 W46 W | Wi-Fi router, 4.5 W5 W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EcoFlow RIVER 3 Plus | 286 Wh | 35 minutes | Too much power | 4.2 hours | 16 hours |
| Anker SOLIX C300 | 288 Wh | Too much power | Too much power | 4.3 hours | 16 hours |
| BLUETTI Elite 30 V2 | 288 Wh | 35 minutes | Too much power | 4.3 hours | 16 hours |
| Jackery Explorer 300 | 293.8 Wh | Too much power | Too much power | 4.3 hours | 17 hours |
| BLUETTI Elite 100 mini | 1,004.8 Wh | 2.0 hours | 1.2 hours | 14 hours | 42 hours |
| EcoFlow DELTA 3 Classic | 1,024 Wh | 2.1 hours | 1.2 hours | 14 hours | 43 hours |
| EcoFlow DELTA 3 | 1,024 Wh | 2.1 hours | 1.2 hours | 14 hours | 43 hours |
| EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus | 1,024 Wh | 2.1 hours | 1.2 hours | 14 hours | 43 hours |
| Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2 | 1,024 Wh | 2.1 hours | 1.2 hours | 14 hours | 43 hours |
| BLUETTI Elite 100 V2 | 1,024 Wh | 2.1 hours | 1.2 hours | 14 hours | 43 hours |
| DJI Power 1000 V2 | 1,024 Wh | 2.1 hours | 1.2 hours | 14 hours | 43 hours |
| FOSSiBOT F1800 | 1,024 Wh | 2.1 hours | 1.2 hours | 14 hours | 43 hours |
| Dabbsson DBS1000 Pro | 1,024 Wh | 2.1 hours | 1.2 hours | 14 hours | 43 hours |
| Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 | 1,070 Wh | 2.1 hours | 1.3 hours | 15 hours | 45 hours |
| BLUETTI AC180 | 1,152 Wh | 2.3 hours | 1.4 hours | 16 hours | 2.0 days |
| Jackery Explorer 1500 v2 | 1,536 Wh | 3.1 hours | 1.9 hours | 20 hours | 2.3 days |
| Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 | 2,042 Wh | 4.1 hours | 2.5 hours | 26 hours | 3.1 days |
| EcoFlow DELTA 3 Max | 2,048 Wh | 4.1 hours | 2.5 hours | 26 hours | 3.1 days |
| Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 | 2,048 Wh | 4.1 hours | 2.5 hours | 26 hours | 3.1 days |
| DJI Power 2000 | 2,048 Wh | 4.1 hours | 2.5 hours | 26 hours | 3.1 days |
| FOSSiBOT F2400 | 2,048 Wh | 4.1 hours | 2.5 hours | 26 hours | 3.1 days |
| BLUETTI Elite 200 V2 | 2,073.6 Wh | 4.1 hours | 2.5 hours | 27 hours | 3.1 days |
| Dabbsson DBS2300 Plus | 2,330 Wh | 4.6 hours | 2.8 hours | 30 hours | 3.5 days |
| Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus | 3,840 Wh | 7.6 hours | 4.7 hours | 2.1 days | 5.8 days |
| EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 | 4,096 Wh | 8.2 hours | 5.0 hours | 2.2 days | 6.2 days |
The table shows how long each station runs a blower that never stops. A furnace's burner and blower cycle with the thermostat, so a station lasts longer on the clock than its hours of blower time.
Hours from the 80,000 BTU and 100,000 BTU Goodman blowers:
Each figure counts 82% of rated capacity as usable and adds the inverter's own draw: 15 W on a station of 1,000 to 1,499 Wh and 18 W from 1,500 Wh, from Jackery's calculator figures, applied to every brand. The details are on the runtime formula page.
The sizing tool on this page starts with this outage day:
The 8 blower-hours are our assumption for cold weather, not Goodman's figure, so change them to match your furnace in the sizing tool. The list uses 3,763 Wh in a day, including 18 W of inverter draw for all 24 hours, because the AC output stays on for the router and the furnace. With 82% of capacity usable, you need a station rated at 4,589 Wh or more.
No single station on this site covers that day. The EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 covers 89% of it and the Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus 84%. The Dabbsson DBS2300 Plus covers 51%, a 2,048 Wh station such as the Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 45%, and the Jackery Explorer 1500 v2 33%.
Each line changes one thing in the worked example:
To cover a full 8-hour day from one station, add expansion batteries. The makers' expandable totals:
The first four are above the 7,174 Wh that 8 hours of the 100,000 BTU furnace needs. The price per Wh table sorts every station by price per Wh of battery.
A furnace is hard-wired, so it has no plug to move to a station. It needs a transfer switch or a power inlet installed by a licensed electrician. Never back-feed a house by plugging a station into a wall outlet.
With that in place, leave the station's AC output on for as long as you want heat, because the furnace can start a heating cycle only while it has power. If your station has a setting that turns AC off when nothing draws power, turn that setting off.
Ask the electrician which outlet on your station the inlet or transfer switch will take. The EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3 has a 30 A NEMA TT-30R outlet as well as four 20 A NEMA 5-20R outlets, and the Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus has six 120 V, 20 A outlets.
For more on running a fridge, Wi-Fi and lights through an outage, see the home backup page.
In a winter outage the station may sit in a basement, garage or utility room near the furnace. Check that the room stays inside the maker's rated temperature range:
A station rated to charge only from 32°F up needs a room at 32°F or warmer while it recharges. This site has no rated temperature range for the EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3, so ask EcoFlow before you put it in an unheated room.
Yes, once a licensed electrician has installed a transfer switch or power inlet, because a furnace is hard-wired. Goodman's 80,000 BTU furnace blower draws 394 W in heating mode, and a 2,048 Wh station such as the Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 runs it for 4.1 hours of blower time.
For 8 blower-hours a day from an 80,000 BTU furnace, plus a Wi-Fi router, one LED bulb and two phone charges, you need a station rated at 4,589 Wh; with 4 blower-hours, 2,667 Wh. For output, pick a station whose continuous rating covers the furnace's circuit figure: 1,127 VA for the 80,000 BTU Goodman and 1,886 VA for the 100,000 BTU model.
An 80,000 BTU Goodman furnace blower runs 2.1 hours on a 1,024 Wh station, 4.1 hours on a 2,048 Wh station and 8.2 hours on the 4,096 Wh EcoFlow DELTA Pro 3. Those are hours of blower time, and they leave out the inducer motor. The blower cycles on and off with the thermostat, so the station lasts longer than that on the clock.
Not directly: a furnace is hard-wired and has no plug. A licensed electrician first installs a transfer switch or power inlet, and the station connects to that. Never connect a station to a wall outlet to back-feed the house.
A 2,048 Wh station such as the Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 runs an 80,000 BTU furnace blower for 4.1 hours, a 21 cu ft refrigerator for 26 hours or a Wi-Fi router for 3.1 days, each on its own. What you run must also fit its continuous output, which Anker rates at 2,400 W.
On a 2,048 Wh station such as the Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2, a 1,500 W space heater on high runs 1.1 hours, against 4.1 hours of blower time from an 80,000 BTU gas furnace, whose heat comes from gas. A 100 W electric blanket runs 14 hours on the same station.
Specifications are the makers' own published figures, read from these pages. Prices are fetched from the stores at build time and dated where they appear.