I have a Generac 8000W generator that is automatic wired into the household electrical system. When the power drops off, she fires up by herself and takes over the whole house load without a problem. We do turn off excess,mainly to prevent wasting fuel- but our heat pump, fridge, 60" TV, stereo, and many others run fine on 8000W. It runs off LP gas, we have a leased tank (pretty large, not sure what the size is) that is serviced by the leasing Co. The system works great- The power seems to go out here quite often and my neighborhood seems to be one of the easiest to go out and the last to get turned back on so it is nice to have. The only thing is the digital cable (and internet) won't work since the cable box for the street loses power (now just to find a wire to get the Gen to run that too). Gotta go to rabbit ears for local weather.kmclemore wrote:I have *everything* on that generator, except our electric stove, electric water heater and our central air, though I'll bet I could probably wire those in, too, if necessary. Longest we've been out has been 72 hours to date, and those devices haven't been needed in that short time. However, we do have an outage about every 3 months or so, hence the genset.Mark Prouty wrote:Do you have your boiler/furnace pump/blower hooked-up so you can heat the house? By the way, what is MSW?
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The downside of my setup- it is a fixed system that is setup on a concrete block on the side of the house (and locked up). The transfer switch is in the garage. No portability here.
Long story short---8000W runs the home AC and everything else just fine in a 2400 sq ft house. Not sure what the minimum is.
Jeff S