How Powerful Should a Home Generator Be?

Power outages are quite common in California, and they sometimes last for hours or even days. If you want to continue to enjoy life when your local power supply is interrupted, you will need a home generator. One of these machines can keep your lights on and your appliances running, but how powerful should your home generator be?

Choosing a Home Generator

When you start researching home generators, you will quickly realize that there are a lot of options to choose from. There are small portable units that generate only enough power to keep a few essential devices working, and there are large units that can run major appliances and keep a whole house cool or warm. Let’s take a look at the four main types of home generator:

Portable generator: Portable models that generate under 2,000 watts are usually used to provide power during camping trips and tailgate parties, but they can charge a smartphone or laptop, run a TV set and keep up to 10 lights on for a few hours in an emergency.
Midsized inverter generator: These units generate up to 3,500 watts, which is enough power to operate a refrigerator, window air conditioner and washing machine.
Large inverter generator: More powerful inverter models can generate up to 7,500 watts. That’s enough power to keep a stove and clothes dryer running.
Home standby generator: These models generate 20,000 or more watts, which is enough power to keep an entire home running. They are hardwired to electrical panels and start working automatically during an outage, so they provide peace of mind as well as reliable power.

Starting and Running Watts

When you choose a generator for your home, you must consider how much power your appliances will need to start up as well as how much energy they will use when they are running. Small machines and devices like laptop computers, light bulbs and coffee makers don’t need a surge of energy to get them up and running, but large appliances do. Here are the running and starting watts of some common household appliances:

Refrigerator: 700 running watts and 2,200 starting watts.
Washing machine: 800 running watts and 1,800 starting watts.
Electric dryer: 5,400 running watts and 6,750 starting watts.
Window air conditioner: 1,200 running watts and 1,800 starting watts.
Central air conditioner: 3,800 running watts and 4,950 starting watts.

The Home Generator Experts

If you want to enjoy the peace of mind that a home generator can provide, the knowledgeable experts at Chamberlain can answer your questions and help you make a wise choice. We offer comprehensive home generator installation, maintenance and repair services to Jonesboro, AR residents, and our technicians have more than three decades of industry experience. Call us today to schedule an appointment!

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Customer Reviews

' Brandon was a huge help! We were needing to restore power to a newly purchased property and Brandon drove down to the city to help us get all the paperwork in order. We will definitely be using him for the future work we do on the property! Highly recommend his service. "

' These days you can’t seem to find anyone that wants to work, or will be there when they say they will. I called Chamberlain’s, because of the reviews I read. They DID NOT disappoint me!! They were on time, professional, caring, and thorough! They found the issues, and repaired them, and it was a very fair price! I will definitely call them again, if I need an electrician! Highly recommend them!! "

' The electricians arrived when promised. They listened carefully to my issues and worked until they identified the problems and corrected them. They shopped for the parts needed both for functioning and cosmetic reasons. They were very careful about cleaning up insulation and other debris. The were courteous and easy to work with. Their pricing was very fair. This was the second time they worked on issues in my home. I was very pleased with the results both time. "

' Had my panel moved from a bathroom to under the carport. They evaluated what needed to be done and gave me different options to approach the project. Came in and started the work and didn't quit till it was done. (Late in the evening) Highly recommend if you need electrical service done, see them first. "

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