When you experience a power outage, it is likely that you will consider the use of a generator to provide electricity to your home. However, in order to use a generator to power your home, you must understand how the appliances in your home consumes electricity. The generator will have to provide enough power to those appliances, and the power that those appliances require can change according to the type of appliance that you are considering use.
If the generator dont provide enough power to the appliances that you would like to power your home, the generator will shut off. To ensure that you have a generator that can provide enough power to your home, it is necessary to understand the difference between starting wattage and running wattage. Starting wattage (also referred to as surge wattage) is the amount of electricity that an appliance requires in order to start.
How to Choose a Generator for Your Home
Appliances often contain motors, and these motors often requires a large amount of electricity in order to start. After the appliance starts and begins to operate normaly, however, the appliances may require less electricity to perform it’s services; this amount of power is referred to as the appliances running wattage. Appliances like air conditioning units, for instance, require a high amount of starting wattage in order to start the compressor motor, but the air conditioning units require a lower amount of running wattage once those motors begin to turn.
Thus, if you only considered the running wattage of appliances, it is possible that your generator will not have enough starting wattage to start the motors of appliances, and the generator will not be able to power the appliances. In order to determine how large of a generator that you will need for your home, calculate the amount of starting wattage that the appliance in your home that has the highest starting wattage requires. Use that wattage number as the baseline for your generator, then add the running wattage of all of the other appliance in your home.
In addition to these appliances, you may also have other electrical load in your appliances that do not have motors, such as coffee makers or toasters. Appliances that do not have motors do not have a starting wattage; they require a constant supply of electricity to operate. Such appliances use electrical heating element to operate, which requires a high amount of running wattage.
Thus, you should also include the running wattage of these appliances in the calculation of the size of the generator that is required. After determining the total wattage that the appliances in your home require, you should purchase a generator that has a capacity that is approximately 20% higher than the total number of watts that your appliances require. This excess capacity of your generator will provide a safety buffer for the generator.
Generators that you operate at or near their maximum wattage for extended period of time can experience overheating or even mechanical failure. If the generator have a safety buffer, the generator will run more efficienty, and will be able to handle unexpected demand on the generator (like the start of a refrigerator compressor). Safety is one of the component of the operation of a generator.
Generators often produce carbon monoxide gas. Carbon monoxide is a deadly gas if it enters the home. Additionally, if you connect the generator directly to the homes power system, you should use a transfer switch to prevent the backflow of electricity from the generator to the power grid.
The flow of electricity into the power grid can be fatal for power grid worker. Thus, if you consider the needs of your appliances regarding starting wattage and running wattage, and if you consider the safety of your home and its occupants by following safety protocol, you can use a generator to provide electricity to your home during a power outage.
