I want to buy a portable generator for power-outages and need some advice on which to buy. I want to run: at least one refrigerator possibly a stand-alone freezerbasic lightinga few outlets a sum-pump. I also need to provide power to my heat in the winter Our heat is natural gas but it needs to be lit with the pilot light and I guess the thermostats need power. Preferrably diesel so we can store fuel safer. How many volts and watts do I need, what price range should I look for, and how many gallons of fuel would I need to be prepared for a good 2 days without power? Thanks- best answer gets the 10!
You need at least a 5KW, I''d start at a 7 KW. You need to read the specs to see how much fuel it consumes, most give a rating such as 9 runtime hours at 1/2 capacity. You would not need to run it all the time either, like maybe 1 hour on, 2 off, and off overnight. You would get a transfer panel installed, for youe sump-pump, furnace, appliances, and convenience circuits you require. Since you have NG, you can look into an NG powered generator.
Your idea of a diesel is good. Look on the back of both all appliances and find the plate that tells how many watts and amps they use and copy them down. Make a list of what will be plugged into the outlets and if possible get the amps and wattage of those and add it to your list, same with sump pump. Now take that list to a dealer and show it to them and they will figure out what size generator you will need. Do not guess what size generator you will need, most underestimate The size and often by a large amount. Let an expert that is in the business do the figuring. Most answers on here go by widely varying assumptions and uneducated guesses, depending on any of them could result in your system watts being way off. You might be paying for a system several times too large or small if you rely on these answers. Either way it could get very expensive and wasteful.
A 5000 watt generator will normally supply most of what you need, a 3500 will give a little more trouble with overloads, but will be quieter wihen not loaded. That Yamaha is a nice generator, if your the type that drives a MB S-Class, if you drive a Ford, you may want to be looking at a $700 Generac brand generator, fuel consumption will vary with load, but running at near capacity will burn a tank (5 gallons) of fuel in 8 hours, the higher the consumption of a generator he bigger the tank they put on. May want to check to see if Fridge and freezer are on opposite legs of your 240V service. FYI: Many electrical panel companies now make bolt in transfer switches to make any circuit in your house available to a generator rather than a gentran that just allows a few circuits
