There are probably hundreds of different models of home generators. Each generator has different features and specs, including wattage, fuel type, wireless apps, and much more. This can make it confusing to know which generator is right for you. A 12,000 watt generator is one of the popular options people select for their home generator.
Can a 12,000 watt generator run your home? If so, how long can a 12,000 watt generator run for?
In this article we will show exactly what a 12,000 watt generator can power, as well as how long it can run during a power outage.
Will A 12000 Watt Generator Run A House?
A 12,000 watt generator can run a house, as long as your power needs are not too high. With 12,000 watts, you should be able to run most of the essential home needs. This includes average size heating or cooling systems, a refrigerator, some lighting, an electric water heater, an electric over or stove, WiFi, and a laptop. Homes with greater energy needs or power-hungry appliances will differ.
A 12,000 watt, or 12 kw generator, should be able to meet your essential needs, even during hot summer outages where air conditioners are run much more frequently, as well as cold winter outages where heating systems are run frequently.
In addition, you probably won’t need to run all of your energy consuming devices at once and your devices may consume less power than the average device. Plus, some of your home appliances may be powered by gas, such as a water heater or stove. In that case, you could potentially power additional devices if your generator has remaining capacity.
As an example, an average central air conditioning system will use about 3500 watts. A typical heat pump will use about the same. This leaves about 8500 watts that can still be used by other essential appliances.
An electric water heater uses about 4500 watts, an electric oven 3500 watts, and a refrigerator 500 watts. All of these devices use about 12,000 total watts when running at the same time.
The amount of energy lighting uses depends on the type of bulb. For LEDs, each light bulb consumes about 10 watts. If you use incandescent bulbs, each light bulb consume about 60 watts. For a room with 4 lights, this totals an additional 40-240 watts for lighting, which may begin to exceed the 12,000 watt capacity of your generator if you are running all the above devices at once.
However, certain devices such as your water heater may be powered by gas and doesn’t constantly consume energy. It cycles on and off automatically as hot water is needed. In fact, your heating, cooling, freezer and refrigerator cycle on and off as needed, as well.
Your oven may also be gas powered and isn’t constantly running. This means, a 12,000 watt generator should be enough power for your essential needs during an outage, with enough left over for lower energy consuming uses such as lighting, WiFi, and a laptop to check updates on the outage. There may even be enough left over to power a freezer, which doesn’t need constant power to keep food at the proper temperature.
Regardless, many appliances have a running wattage and as well as surge wattage or starting wattage. Starting watts, or surge watts, is the amount of power required to turn a device on and is often higher than the amount of energy needed to run a device, which is running watts. While surge watts typically lasts a short time, such as a few seconds, you’ll need to account for this when turning devices on.
For this reason, and to not max out your generator, it’s important to turn devices on one at a time. To do this, you could use your home circuit breaker box to limit energy use to certain appliances. When you want to use certain appliances, simply flip on the proper circuit break and shut others off that are not in use or were use can be limited.
You could also try shutting certain devices off momentarily, or run devices such as stoves during the day, where heating and cooling needs may not be as high as at night.
If you need to run more energy intense devices, such as power tools, or you want to run less essential items such as clothes dryers, dish washers, EV charger, or other electrical appliances, you’ll need to plan accordingly, or hold off until power returns.
Will A 12000 Watt Generator Run A House During a Power Outage?
For a home using average size energy consuming devices, a 12,000 watt generator should be sufficient to meet the homes essential energy needs. Other homes may need a smaller or larger generator depending on their energy needs. If you’re interested in using a generator to provide backup power, assess your home energy needs and purchase a generator accordingly.
To do so, simply add up the wattages of each appliance you would like to keep running at once during an outage. Then, find a generator that is greater than that total wattage you calculated.
Other than the size of the generator, one other important thing to consider is how long the generator would need to run for. It would be pointless to have a generator powerful enough to meet your needs, only for it not to run long enough for the power to come back on.
Portable generators are typically smaller and run less time. Most portable models are under 10,000 watts, with some above. Standby generators are mostly above 14,000 watts with only a few models under 14,000 watts. While they both may be rated for 12,000 watts, portable generators usually have shorter run times.
How Long Can A 12,000 Watt Generator Run A House?
A 12,000 watt generator should be able to meet all your needs for the duration of an outage, however it cannot run fully continuously due to maintenance needs. This is true even if your generator runs on natural gas supplied by the natural gas lines in your home. If you try to run any generator longer than the maintenance schedule recommends, you’ll risk damaging the generator.
A 12,000 watt generator will run for different amounts of time based on different factors, such as generator type, fuel type used, and your energy needs. Home whole house generators can connect to the natural gas line in your home, giving you power as long as its functional.
They can also be configured to connect to a fuel tank. In that case, you’ll have power for as long as your fuel supply lasts.
Generac Guardian propane models will run for about 1.5 days on a small tank up to 7 weeks on a very large tank. Protector models can run about 1 day on a small tank up to 2 weeks on a very large tank. Diesel models can run for 1.5 days on small tank up to 10 weeks on a very large tank.
Keep in mind that once your fuel tank runs out, you could always have it refilled. However, it may be difficult to refill during and outage if your service provider is busy with other customers, roads are blocked, or there are fuel shortages.
Generators need to be shut down to refuel safely for this reason as well.
This is partially what makes solar power with a battery an attractive option for a backup power source. The sun can recharge a battery indefinitely, as long as your solar system and battery remain functional. These systems don’t need to be shut down for maintenance and are capable of meeting similar energy needs.
