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jrs_diesel wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 10:18 pm All depends on how many heaters, and any other loads you want to run, like refrigerators, freezers, lighting, and any critical loads you have like a water well pump. But yes, you can run space heaters on a generator.

Most portable 120 Volt space heaters top out at 1,500 Watts, so if you want to run one space heater, you need at least that much in a generator. You add the Watts together of what you would like to run, and factor in some overhead, to figure the size of generator you want. Electric motors need extra to start rotating, and less while they are running at normal speed.

Generators typically have two ratings, the running rating and the surge rating. The running rating is for continuously running loads and is what the generator can support before being overloaded. The surge rating is what it is able to put out before undervolting (a bad thing for most devices) for a brief period of time, like when the compressor on your fridge first starts.

Example, if I wanted to run three space heaters, a fridge, a 42 inch TV, and a couple of lights, here is what I would need:

1,500 Watt space heaters x3 = 4,500 Watts
Typical fridge draws about 600-800 Watts while running, about 400-500 more for starting
42 inch TV is about 120 Watts
Energy efficient lights (like LEDs or compact florescent) draw about 5-15 Watts per bulb, lets figure 4 lights at 10 Watts

4,500 + 700 + 120 + 40 = 5,360 Watts. Add a little overhead on the continuous rating and in this example you'd want a generator with no less than a 5,500 Watt continuous rating, and at least 6,000 Watt surge capacity.

Portable generators tend to come in two flavors, the normal type, and the inverter type. The normal ones are cheaper and louder, but can put out more power than the inverter generators. The inverter types are more expensive, but a lot quieter, and tend to be limited to around 3,000 Watts in the larger models. There are also the whole home standby generators which can run off of propane or your natural gas utility if available. These are usually professionally installed and wired to it's own sub panel and automatic transfer switch to run some (but not all) loads in your home.

One thing to factor is fuel. The tank on portable generators will usually allow a runtime of about 8-12 hours depending on how much load you put on it. You'll need a supply of gas cans to feed one for en extended period of time, or to run the generator periodically in order to stretch your fuel supply while also keeping your food cold.

DO NOT backfeed your house with a portable generator! Is is not safe to do that at all. Very high risk of putting power back into the utility system, this has killed linesmen and utility workers thinking they were working on dead/downed power lines.

Hope this helps!