People who are planning to purchase a generator should have an idea of the amount of power they generally consume. Understanding their power needs will give them an idea of the type and size of generator to invest in. Otherwise, they may purchase a product with the wrong capacity.
You can start by assessing the consumption of each of your appliances and devices that will be needed for your family’s basic survival and comfort in the event of a power outage. Calculating power consumption is fairly easy because most manufacturer labels indicate how many watts certain devices use. If you can’t find the information on the label, check the user’s manual.
Determining the total power consumption of the household could be a tricky process because power consumption can be measured in different ways including watt, hertz, etc. Thus, you will need to be familiar with different terminology and conversion formulas to come up with a whole-house figure.
- Watt – This unit indicates the current flow of one ampere with one volt of voltage.
- Kilowatt – Equal to 1,000 watts of electrical power, this is the power factor in the U.S. that uses 60 Hz.
- Hertz – This is a unit of frequency and is defined as one cycle per second. In the U.S., electricity is supplied at 60 hertz. It means the supply changes direction 120 times, which is equivalent to 60 cycles per second.
Both iPhone and iPad users can now compute household power consumption and determine appropriate generator capacity with the help of an app known as the Triton Power kW Calculator. This app can be downloaded for free. Users can calculate the kilowatt consumption of the household based on the power factor, percent efficiency, and horsepower.
Users enter required data in the blanks. Then, the app will calculate the household power consumption. With these numbers, you are ready to buy an appropriate generator.
