Is a 3000 watt generator sufficient to power a 3/4 horsepower water pump?My house has a 3/4 horsepower pump that it uses to pump water from the well to the house. I want to purchase a generator that will be sufficient to power this pump in a power outage. Is 3000 Watts sufficient?
Danny and GTB give a good answer, I just add some: As a rule of thumb, 1 horsepower (HP or hp) is equal to 750 watts, and a motorized electric equipment at start up will suck electricity power about twice as much as its specification. Is you pump equipped with a three phase or a single phase electric motor? You have to suit it with the generator. As for the generator, if possible you choose a generator with big flywheel, with slower RPM -rotations per minutes- than a generator with high RPM, because a water pump will frequently on and off according to the usage. This could cause the generator to wave down and up accordingly. Or a generator equipped with an electronic governor that will react fast enough to the frequent on and off load of the water pump. Hope the best and God bless you and good luck day by day!!
1 hp is 746 watts; however start up and power factors need to be considered. A 0.75 hp motor at steady state draws 560 watts at steady state; to overcome start up assume you will need about 1,100 watts (1.1 KW). Your generator is 3 KW so it should do well.
