Any generators ...? (appliances, Home Depot, refrigerator)
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10kw would handle furnace and fridge no problem if it's gas. Furnace is probably < 1000 watts. Fridge could be high on the compressor start up. But 10kw is a lot.
I was actually talking about portable generators to back feed into our furnace to get the heat working and I tracked one down and my wife said I was crazy so I didn't buy it.
Trying to buy a generator right after these events is a waste of time. The ones in the big box store are not the best and wiring it into a home is not easy.
Find a reputable company and get a transfer box wired up and get a top quality generator. The cheap ones may look good in the store but running them for days on end they probably won't stand up to the abuse.
Quote:
Would a 10W generator handle furnace and fridge?
Those big box store gensets are cheaper because while fine for outdoor work, when used with electronic equipment they can cause damage. The current is not filtered and varies greatly depending on the load. You can and will burn out the controllers in furnaces and damage entertainment and computer4 equipment. By the use of filtering the current through a standby battery supply you can get away with using them on electronics. But you refrig and furnace can be damaged.
No way could I afford to get a generator wired up into the house, but a portable generator is affordable for me, so what do you guys recommend as far as watts go? should it be anything above 3,000W? we would want to hook up a refrigerator, freezer, lamp and portable heater just to get through the outage.
I think you need to figure out the start-up watts or amps of these items, particularly freeze/fridge. They could run at 500 watts but need 3000 to start (making numbers up there). Anything else you are just guessing. What if you bought it and it can't start your fridge or freezer...
I have heard awful things about almost all portable generators except Honda. Maybe yamaha. But the typical HD crap all get terrible reviews. Unreliable power, etc.
You can also hard wire it yourself, so that only certain circuits get the feed from the generator. It is not difficult and is basically a sub-panel that will not take juice from the generator unless it is isolated from the main panel (so you don't back feed to the grid and kill someone). It's the alternative to a permanent installed standby generator.
No way could I afford to get a generator wired up into the house, but a portable generator is affordable for me, so what do you guys recommend as far as watts go? should it be anything above 3,000W? we would want to hook up a refrigerator, freezer, lamp and portable heater just to get through the outage.
Thanks!
On my generator's instruction manual, it list refrigerator as 700W. To start it, you will need 3x the watts so calculate the watts of all the necessary appliances and decide.
Portable heater (ceramic) - usually about 1500W
Refrigerator - 700W (need 3x to start)
Freezer - 700W (need 3x to start)
Hair dryer - 1800W
Microwave - 700-1000W
Last edited by echinela; 11-01-2011 at 12:42 PM..
Reason: typos
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