About Power Preflight
A small, practical site with one job: help you figure out how much backup power you actually need before you spend money on it.
What Power Preflight is
Power Preflight is a project of Cynosure LLC, a Florida company. We build free tools — calculators, a gear finder, a device wattage library, and plain-English buying guides — that turn "how big a battery do I need?" into a number you can shop with.
The name comes from the preflight checklist idea: run the numbers on the ground, before you commit. Ten minutes with the Battery Runtime Calculator is cheaper than returning a power station that turned out to be half the size you needed.
Why this site exists
Most people shopping for backup power do one of two things: overspend on a big unit "to be safe," or under-plan and discover during an outage that their battery runs the router for an evening instead of a weekend. Both problems come from the same gap — watt-hours, efficiency losses, and real device wattage are rarely explained in a way you can act on.
We built Power Preflight to close that gap for the situations people actually plan for: home outages, backup internet, remote work, travel, and camping.
What we do
- Estimates. Three calculators — battery runtime, power station sizing, and solar recharge — built on one shared set of formulas. Every assumption is published on How We Estimate.
- Comparisons. Honest side-by-side looks at power stations, UPS units, power banks, and solar panels on the Compare page — organized by what you're trying to keep running, not by brand.
- Education. Buying guides that explain the trade-offs in plain English, plus a Device Wattage Library of typical power draws so your inputs start from realistic numbers.
What we do not do
- No fake reviews. We do not publish star ratings, review scores, or "we tested this" claims unless we clearly state we personally tested something.
- No hype. No fear-based marketing, no countdown timers, no "act now" pressure. Backup power is a planning decision, and we treat it like one.
- No brand affiliation. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any battery or electronics manufacturer.
How we make money
Some links on this site may be affiliate links: if you buy through them, Cynosure LLC may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That is the entire business model — no paid placements, no sponsored rankings, and no selling your data. Affiliate links never change the formulas, the assumptions, or which setups we suggest. The full details are on our Affiliate Disclosure page.
Questions or corrections
If a wattage figure looks off, a spec is out of date, or something reads as more certain than it should, we want to hear about it. Reach us through the Contact page — corrections are the most useful mail we get. And if you want to see exactly how the numbers are produced, start with How We Estimate.