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Appliance
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The Home Appliance
The home generator is an essential appliance for the home. If your residential area suffer from power failures regularly, you should get one. But what are decisions you should make in purchasing this necessary appliance? These are the options.
Size of Generator
This means the wattage, not physical size. The bigger home generators don’t make a difference if the amount of wattage is insufficient to power the most basic of your necessary appliances. Consider if you want a stationary or portable generator. That would decide on the wattage you need. But portable appliances like generators don’t always mean like wattage, as most would commonly think. Nowadays with the advent and genius of technology, portable generators can also carry more power. And they’re more readily available in the market as well.
Stationary generators, on the other hand, are the types that automatically provide power in the event of an outage. Most of them run on natural gas and are the ones good to have if you live in an area that experiences power failures often.
Generators , home or portable, can supply power for many types of devices and appliance : anything from night lights to a number of huge appliances.
Determine the wattage you require for your generator by adding up the wattage all your appliances need.
Appliance
Shoppers for generators are usually helped by the wattage guidelines that generator sellers provide. Most air compressors and other power equipment retailers also provide such details. Search engines are also good source of information.
A practical method is to record and list the wattage requirements of all appliances that your generator will supply power to. Then add up the total watts of all the appliances. Bear in mind, though, when you add up the sums to choose the start-up wattage, which can be higher than the running wattage. A fridge, for example, requires 1200w to run, and 3000w to start up. Some appliances fall under the category ‘inductive load appliance’, which means they need extra power to run while starting up with supplemental power. They’re start-ups may require small wattage, but to go on running they need the extra power.
Always read the manufacturer’s guidelines for any appliance you purchase for safety purposes. Your
generator retailer can also provide exact wattage requirements.
Stationary vs Portable?
There is one advantage stationary generators have over portable ones. Also called standby or permanent, most of these generators have an automatic activation system. They start immediately either with a push button or automatically when a power failure occurs. Generally there’s a 10-30 second wait before they start running.
Portable generators, on the other hand, have to be taken out of their storage, filled with gas or diesel oil, and then activated. They are powered by either gas, oil or liquified petroleum gas. The cheapest are usually the gas-powered ones. You can buy such a generator one for around $250.00. The disadvantage, however, with this type of portable generators is that they usually have a limited run time. Use them all day and you’ll need to keep filling them up with fuel. But portable generators have a great advantage going for them – mobility. Wherever you are: at home, in a camp site, or in your summer cottage, your portable generator comes in handy.
Most generators in the market today can run on natural gas or on propane. Use the kind of fuel easily available in your area.
Accessories
For safety purposes, get accessories for your appliances with your generator-powered power supply. Your computer, for example, needs UPS (unlimited power supply) to prevent data loss during transfer time.
Your tools or home appliance must always be used with the right extension cord. When the tool or appliance is located far from the generator, higher gauges use three-prong or three-wire cords.
Have a transfer switch connect your generator to the wiring system of your home. This is to prevent back feeding into municipal utility lines. Also since your neighbours might also be using the same line transformer, it protects your generator from potential damage due to overloading.
You should ask a certified electrician to install your generator and to ground it to prevent any electric shock. Also, never use your generator beyond its capacity. Always plug in the larger appliances first, followed by the smaller ones, when there’s a power failure. Where there is snow or rain, or near heating ducts, are places where generators shouldn’t operate.
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