The first and Biggest Question Any and Every Customer of ours asks is: What size generator do I need?
The answer isn’t as simple as “my house is 1250 square feet”. According to the National Electrical Code, the square footage only accounts for general lighting. What about all the other things you plug into your home? What about your stove, dryer, furnace, air conditioner or refrigerator? How much power do those take compared to the lighting of your home? How does that affect the size of generator you need?
There are several components to properly size a generator for your home.
#1 – Use 3 VA per square foot of your home for general lighting (1250 x 3 = 3750/1000 = 3.75 kW)
#2 – If you’re looking to power your entire home and not just part of your home, you need 1500 VA for kitchen and laundry (1500/1000 = 1.5 kW)
#3 – Then you need to add general appliance and motor loads (dishwasher, sump pumps, well pumps, etc.). The equipment you are powering is unique to your home, so you’ll need to figure out how much power all of the appliances in your home actually need.
#4 – Add the kW of all those together.
#5 – Take the first 10kW of your total and put that to the side. Then multiply what’s left by 40%. (For example, if you have a current total of 15 kW you would have 10kW and 5kW, 5 x .4 = 2kW)
#6 – Add the first 10kW back to the 40% for a new total (10kW + 2kW = 12kW)
#7 – The final part is to add the starting requirement of the largest heat or Air Conditioning load (This depends on your equipment)
=The size of the generator you need (For example, 12kW + 2kW = 14kW size generator required)
Confused? We’ve made it easy for you, just use our calculator below: