When the average American home loses power two or three times a year, you need a reliable way to ensure your home is never without. Despite wanting to ensure your family’s needs are met, how do you know you’re buying the proper product for your needs?
Not only do you have to consider the size of your home, but you also need to consider the wattage needs of all of the appliances you need running. Simply running a fridge and a few phones take up significantly less power than if you need to keep an air conditioner or multiple kitchen appliances online.
But what if you’re providing backup power to a job site, or you need to ensure specific equipment can continue running without disruption? If you’re wondering what size generator you need, look no further. Keep reading to find out some of the things to keep in mind while shopping.
Length of Time
While it’s impossible to know how long you’ll be without power during every single outage, there’s a good chance you’ll know some estimates. If you live in an area with frequent storms, you’ll likely only be without power for a couple of hours.
If this is the case, buying a large generator may not be needed if all you’re powering is a small radio and maybe your refrigerator.
However, if you live in an area with frequent natural disasters like hurricanes or tornadoes, you might be likely to lose power for multiple days. This would call for a much higher demand on your generator, and thus, you’d need a much larger one to keep your necessities online.
Another thing to consider is that maybe you’re just looking for a generator for a one-off project. Rather than taking power from your home system or site systems, you may consider using a generator as your main power source. Doing this, however, may require a much larger generator as the demand to keep multiple pieces of machinery running non-stop at a job site is very high.
What Equipment You Need
Every home and build site is different in terms of what appliances in their home are considered absolutely essential. If you simply need to keep a radio and a few kitchen appliances online, you won’t need a very large generator to help in case of an emergency.
If you’re at a worksite, however, you may require a lot more power to stay operational. You’ll want a larger generator to keep your equipment running even if there is a power disruption. This can prevent accidents, injuries, and ensure your equipment doesn’t suffer any damages from the sudden loss of power.
What Wattage Generator Should I Get?
Deciding which wattage output you need from a generator is usually determined by certain factors like the time you need it running and the equipment you’ll be using on the generator. Smaller 1000 watt generators are often battery-powered and can even be solar charged, making them an extremely affordable option.
Wattage above 2000 can be a bit more expensive and require different charging methods but might be able to handle some of the heavier output you need. These are usually great for most home environments.
With larger and more advanced equipment, such as what you might find on a building site, you’ll need a much larger generator. Not only because you’ll need the additional wattage for the larger equipment, but because the equipment you’re using might require significantly more power to start up than to run.
What does this mean? Well, think of an air conditioner, for example. While it may only take so many watts to run, the wattage required to get it powered up is much higher than the sustained operating wattage. If your generator can only handle your machinery’s required wattage, you run the risk of overloading the system. Having extra wattage available will prevent this issue. Always plan to have wattage overhead when budgeting for your electrical needs.
If you’re on a construction site and using a generator as your main source of power, you may need a generator with a significantly higher output than just 2,000 watts. 10,000 watts might be more reasonable for these situations. While it might sound like a lot, the larger wattage generators can handle the influx of power needed to start-up machinery and keep multiple pieces of machinery running at a time and avoid losing power mid-cut, mid-lift, or mid-break.
Can I Rent a Generator?
If you’re looking for a generator to support you during a project or during a short period of time, you can consider renting a generator. While it may not provide emergency backup for your home, it can be a power source and a backup power source for many of your professional and home construction projects.
If you’re on a job site and in need of reliable power, or you are simply a home DIY enthusiast who needs to ensure your project gets finished no matter the weather, Elephant Construction Solutions can help. We offer generator rentals to keep any project, big or small, running no matter the conditions.
Reach out to us at Elephant Construction Solutions to get your free quote for any machinery your site may need. Whether it’s as simple as a lawnmower, as important as scaffolding, or as small as a nail gun, we have the tools you need to successfully finish your next project and stay under budget while doing it.