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Generator question
- Thread starter jgraz
- Start date
John, the best I can do is tell you my experience with my 3650W, $299 generator from Sam's Club. Here's what I ran 24/7 during 7+ days of Sandy:
Entire tank....everything
Refrigerator/Freeze
Boiler for the house
Television
A couple lights
Note that I did not use it for any food heating devices since they tend to be power hogs. We broke out the cast iron pans and cooked everything on the gas grill.
What you can do is add up the watts of the things you want to run.....just don't exceed 3000.
And, I'll also give you the heads up that you'll probably spend another $250 in extension cords (10-12 gauge) and other stuff to have it ready. I think the one 100 foot, 8 or 10 gauge extension cord I purchased was over $100.
Entire tank....everything
Refrigerator/Freeze
Boiler for the house
Television
A couple lights
Note that I did not use it for any food heating devices since they tend to be power hogs. We broke out the cast iron pans and cooked everything on the gas grill.
What you can do is add up the watts of the things you want to run.....just don't exceed 3000.
And, I'll also give you the heads up that you'll probably spend another $250 in extension cords (10-12 gauge) and other stuff to have it ready. I think the one 100 foot, 8 or 10 gauge extension cord I purchased was over $100.
It will handle your tank, my amp draw on mine at peak per the apex is 3.4 amps, so it's only using roughly 408 watts at peak. If you're curious about what you're tank draw is, take the peak amps if you have an apex and multiply it by 120 (regular house voltage) to find your watt usage, same can be done for the fridge and freezer, and other items, they should show an amp draw, x by 120 for regular outlets, anything that runs at 240 (well pump or dryer for example) would have to x by 240, whatever the voltage is. I run my whole house minus ac, hot water, and oven (stove and heat are gas, so i'm good there). I can even run my well pump and microwave on power outages, i have a total of 5500 running watts, thats the number you want to look at, not peak. The other stuff the generator is running is a fridge, two freezers, my internet and tv and any lights. As long as the cable didn't go out we can still watch tv when the power goes out.
This is how I got started with my generator, by looking for something just large enough to power the tank in an emergency. In a relatively short period of time it grew into a 7000W, built a shed to run it in, installed a transfer switch, etc. Up til now I have never had the opportunity or run it (fortunately/unfortunately)
Haha .
John, if interested, and not a member of Sam's, they have this 3600 watt generator on Black Friday sale for $200....with ca $15 shipping. Now that's a deal!
John, if interested, and not a member of Sam's, they have this 3600 watt generator on Black Friday sale for $200....with ca $15 shipping. Now that's a deal!
I will check it out
Thanks Paul