How to size a home standby generator?

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A home standby generator can provide peace of mind during a power outage, but the size is important to ensure that the unit can handle your needed load. This guide will help you determine the right size for your home. One of the most important decisions you’ll make when it comes to preparing for a power outage is sizing your home standby generator.

A correctly sized generator can ensure that you have the power you need to keep your family comfortable and safe during an outage, while a small or undersized generator may not be able to handle all of your needs. So, the question that arises by many standby generator users is that How to size a home standby generator.

The size you need depends on how much power your home needs when the electricity goes out. This is called your “critical load”. Your critical load is based on two factors —your basic equipment and consumption loads. The consumption loads are what you want to keep up and running during an outage, such as your refrigerator, furnace fan, sump pump, well pump, etc.

How to size a home standby generator?

The basic equipment consists of things that are required to keep the structure comfortable and safe during an outage—things like heating or cooling pumps, lights, and outlets, sump pump(s), water heater, stove/oven/range-top burners.

While it’s impossible to prescribe a one-size-fits-all standby generator size, you can use this guide to determine the minimum size your unit should be. Now you don’t need to worry about sizing and purchase a generator that is a little too large than your needs or too small.

What size generator do I need?

A: This can be a difficult question to answer, but we recommend using the chart above as a good starting point. Once you know your general wattage and power needs, you can start looking for generators close to those numbers and go from there.

Generator Sizing Chart

The above sizing information is just that, information. It should serve as a guide in deciding what size generator will work best for your home or business’ specific power needs.

There are many types of loads that factor into how big of a standby generator you need such as furnace blower motors, well pump motors, and other large appliances such as air conditioners, electric water heaters, and space heaters.

One thing we don’t want customers doing is buying too large of a generator to cover all their appliances. If you get too large of a unit, it can start tripping your breakers on your transfer switch because the demand is so high in which case you are not achieving the purpose of getting a standby generator in the first place.

While there are many factors that go into deciding what size generator will work best for your home or business’s specific needs, the chart above is a good place to start when sizing standby generators.

How to size a home standby generator? Step by Step Guide 2022

What do you need to know?

In this guide, we’ll explain how to size a home standby generator step by step. We hope our guide will help you make the right choice and pick out a suitable standby generator for your home. Ready? Let’s get started!

Step:

1) Find Your Appliances 2222

2) Add everything up to 2220

3) Look at the chart above 2224

4) Size the unit according to the chart above 2221

5) Check local codes/regulations 2219

6) Make sure it fits in your residential garage 2247

The first thing that you need to do is identify all of the appliances, tools, electronics, etc. that are essential to your lifestyle. The general rule of thumb is that you need to be able to run all of these items without access to power for at least 48 hours.

Some homes have more specific needs than others, so it’s important that you consider everything that will require power during that time frame.

Once you have identified the list of appliances/items that would be affected by a home power outage, use one of our load calculators below and add up the total wattage:

Or use the appliance watt calculator on our website: Appliance Watt Calculator. Be sure not to include heating or cooling systems in this calculation as standby generators won’t power those kinds of loads (i.e., furnace blowers and air conditioner compressors).

After you have determined your total wattage, look at the chart above and find your number. This will be the minimum size standby generator that you would need to run all of those items listed. Remember that it’s OK if this number is on the high side, as you can reduce the load on a generator by unplugging some appliances during an outage.

If you’re not sure about any appliance on your list, give us a call or check out our post: What Size Generator Do I Need. Once you know how big of a generator you’ll need (at least), make sure it fits within your residential garage; there should be enough room for storage and access to power connections (generators with electric start need a place for the starter to plugin).

Keep in mind that you may also need room in your yard for exhaust and fuel tank venting. If you’re close to the minimum size required, it might be wise to select a slightly larger generator than necessary so there is extra capacity for potential future load growth.

You can always unplug non-essential appliances during an outage if the unit starts powering items you didn’t plan on running. The post on how to size a home standby generator-ultimate Guide 2022 appeared first on Generator Sizing Calculator.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it is essential to understand that a home standby generator will only be able to power the number of watts needed for your appliances initially. However, they can be re-adjusted if you have more appliances or need prolonged backup time.

In order to avoid overloading your generator and ensure that it will last a long time, you should do proper research on what size of a unit you need prior to purchasing one. Generally speaking, a 500-watt single-phase output generator with 2000 starting watts will cover most homes’ load during an outage.

This appliance includes larger model ovens, washers/dryers, and water heaters in addition to normal loads such as lights and refrigerator/freezers. We at Generator Sizing Calculator want to help you make this decision easily and quickly.

FAQs:

Q 1) How do I know if a standby generator is right for me?

Q 2) What tools do I need to install a generator?

Q 3) How much does it cost to install a generator?

Q 4) How much does a generator cost?

Q 5) How big of a generator do I need?

Q 6) How much does it cost to run a generator?

Q 7) What kind of fuel does a generator use?

Q 8) How much wattage do I need?

Q 9) How do standby generators work?