# Home generator



## borderman01 (Nov 8, 2012)

Hi all

This is my first post. I was wondering if any of you can recommend a home generator to be run for back while power is out. We live in NJ so we had to first deal with Hurrican Sandy and now a Norestern Storm. I have made up my mind that with two small kids that I need to invest in a generator for our townhome. I really need only to power essential things like Fridge, gas furnace burner, some CFL lights, cable modem along with phone to have communication. Any ideas? It seems the best generator right now is the HONDA brand. Obvisously more expensive. I was looking at either a combo of two EU2000I or EU3000I. Im not looking to power everything in my house. 

Thanks


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## 89yt12 (Sep 20, 2010)

To have enough power to be worth a hoot you want a 3000+ to run a space heater/window unit, fridge, hot plate, and some lights

Hondas are great, and the most quiet, but really any brand will work OK for you aslong as it has a name brand engine (honda, briggs, kohler) Generac are darn good units too

just for some easy numbers 

space heater/window unit about 1500 watts
hot plate 600 watts
Fridge 50 watts
CFL's <10 watts
Modem should be minimal too


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## lunkhead (Mar 17, 2012)

if your furnace is a newer one with electronic circuit boards you may want to purchase a honda inverter type generator, some furnaces are touchy about the hertz and steadyness of the cycles. Also for any backup household generator I never recomend anything smaller than 5500 watts. Remember that most generators are rated at peak or surge watts and running watts are usually 1000 lower. Also you dont want your generator running at its peak all of the time as it will allways be working its hardest and hottest and wont last as long.


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