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26- ENG
WATTAGE CALCULATIONS
IMPORTANT: Never exceed the rated capacity of your generator. Se ri ous damage
to the generator or appliance could result from an overload.
1. Starting and running wattage requirements should always be calculated when
matching a generators wattage capacity to the appliance or tool.
2. There are two types of electrical appliances that can be powered by your gen-
erator:
A. Items such as ra di os, light bulbs, television sets, and microwaves have a
"re sis tive load". Starting wattage and running wattage are the same.
B. Items such as re frig er a tors, air com pres sors, washer, dryer, and hand
tools that use an elec tri cal motor have an "inductive load". Inductive load
appliances and tools require ap prox i mate ly 2 to 4 times the list ed watt age
for starting the equip ment. This ini tial load only lasts for a few sec onds
on start-up but is very im por tant when figuring your total wattage to be
used.
C. Al ways start your largest electric motor first, and then plug in other items,
one at a time.
NOTE: On 120-volt loads the maximum starting wattage should NOT exceed one
half of the rated gen er a tor wattage. Example: a 5000 rated wattage generator =
2500 maximum starting wattage.
DETERMINING WATTAGE REQUIREMENTS
Before operating this generator list all of the appliances and/or tools that are going
to operate at the same time. (Then determine the starting wattage requirements
and the running wattage requirements by following example and/or refer to house-
hold wattage calculator.)
1. First total the running wattage of all appliances and or tools that will be
operated at the same time.
EXAMPLE 1: RUNNING
WATTS
STARTING
WATTS
Lights = 100 Watts 100
Television = 300 Watts 300
Slow Cooker = 250 Watts 250
TOTAL 650 Watts 650
2. Next the starting wattages of any appliances and/or tools that will start and
stop during operation.
EXAMPLE 2: RUNNING
WATTS
STARTING
WATTS
Small Refrigerator = 500 Watts 2000 Watts
TOTAL 500 Watts 2000 Watts
3. The running wattage of examples 1 & 2 totals 1150 watts. The starting watt-
age of the small refrigerator is 2000 watts which is 1500 watts more than the
running watts. Take this difference of 1500 additional starting watts from the
refrigerator and add to the total running watts of 1150.