Things You'll Need:
- List of electrical appliances in the home
- Cchart of appliance energy requirements (URL listed)
-
Step 1
Conduct a thorough review of the appliances in your home and identify those that you would wish to power by a stand-by generator during a power outage.
-
Step 2
List those appliances identified in Step 1 on a sheet of paper and use the Appliance Energy Consumption Chart (see URL below) to record the wattage requirement for each individual appliance.
-
Step 3
Complete the list by entering a wattage requirement for each appliance to be powered by the generator and then determine the total wattage requirement by adding all of the individual appliance wattage.
-
Step 4
Use the total wattage requirement to determine the maximum load power demand for the stand-by generator.
-
Step 5
Determine the average power requirement for the generator by identifying the maximum number of appliances that will be operated simultaneously.
-
Step 6
Determine the size of the generator required to meet your power requirement based on on an average of the maximum load power demand (Step 4) and the average power requirement (step 5).
For example, if this average is 5500 watts you would require a 6000 watt generator or larger.
