What size Generator, just running basics.?
Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at
10:35 pm
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Filed under: Whole House Generator
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It sounds like you need 5000 watt min.
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agreed, 5kw will do fine, keep in mind though, that the generators mass-marketed at home depot and lowe’s don’t put out anywhere near what they are rated at. i have a 5550 watt rated troy-bilt from lowe’s, and if you put a 3600 watt load on it the voltage output drops to 105 volts, and even less if it’s hot. piece of junk
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Heaters can draw a bunch of current. Two 1500 watt heaters, fridge about 850 watts, freezer about 850 watts, lights about 300 watts, TV 200 watts. The total comes out to about 5200 watts, a 5500 watt generator would be marginal at best. You could alternate between the freezer and fridge, they don’t need to be plugged in 100% of the time. Is your normal heat electric? If your normal heat is oil or gas you would be better off running that from the generator than using the electric heaters. Do you have a well for water? A well pump is another item that you would need in a power outage that lasts for more than a day.
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If you are serious about purchasing a generator for backup power, don’t go anything less than 5kW for what you’ve listed. Consider installing a proper transfer panel so that connection is quick and safe.
Read through my home generator page for ideas and suggestions.
http://members.rennlist.org/warren/generator.html
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Sounds like you need at least 5000 watt for what you want to power up for. If you plan to use it on a T.V. or any other electronics, I would definitely advise you to buy a power line conditioner to maintain a steady 120 volt supply no matter what the generator is giving you. Sometimes the gennie will give you less, sometimes more, this line conditioner will kick in with a built-in transformer when there is a brown-out, it is also a surge arrester and noise filter, protecting all your valuable electronics. A 5000 watt generator transfer switch for your 5KW gennie would also make things easier. This device can be hooked up to all the critical household circuits in your entrance service panel by a qualified certified electrician, and you don’t need any tangled up power cords running all around your house. I tripped over too many of them whenever it gets dark, this happened before I had to install the transfer switch. Merry Christmas!!!
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