Appliance Wattage Chart

This page is the reference the rest of the site is built on, and the load calculator reads exactly this data — the chart and the calculator cannot disagree because they come from the same file.

Essential loads

Heating, cooling and hot water

Note that resistive heating — the water heater, the space heater — has no start-up surge at all, and draws its full rating continuously for as long as it runs. That combination makes electric heat the worst possible load for a generator and a hopeless one for a battery.

Kitchen

Almost nothing in this group belongs in a simultaneous-load calculation. You use one kitchen appliance at a time, for minutes, so count only the largest. Doing otherwise is the single most common way people talk themselves into a generator two classes too big.

Laundry

Lighting and electronics

What is deliberately not in this chart

Central air conditioning. Well pumps above 1/3 HP. Full electric ranges. Heat pumps. Hot tubs. Electric vehicle charging.

Neither chart we cite publishes figures for any of them, and these are precisely the loads that decide which generator somebody buys. Printing an invented number for the most consequential load on the list would be the worst thing this page could do.

Find it yourself instead, in about a minute. The nameplate on the equipment gives volts and amps. Multiply them for running watts: 10 amps at 240 volts is 2,400 watts. For anything with a motor or compressor, the plate often also lists LRA — locked rotor amps — which is the start-up surge; multiply that by the voltage too. Then add it to the calculator as a custom load.

What each total actually needs

Three machines, one per common answer, so this page is useful rather than only informative. Add up your own rows above, derate by 80%, and one of these three is almost certainly your class.

The three answers this chart leads to

Quiet backup at a sane price

Champion 4,500W RV Ready Inverter

$674.10·View on Amazon10% off

Essential circuits, dual fuel, lowest cost

WEN DF8000X 8,000W Dual Fuel

$623.17·View on Amazon

The default whole-house pick

Westinghouse WGen9500DF 12,500W Dual Fuel

$999.00·View on Amazon

Left to right: around 1,650 running watts (fridge, furnace blower, lighting) wants a quiet 3,500-watt inverter; around 3,500 running watts (add a well pump and a sump pump) wants a 6,500-watt dual fuel machine; add a window air conditioner and you are at 6,750 running watts, which wants 9,500 and a 50 amp connection.

Next: starting watts vs running watts explains why the surge column exists, and the load calculator turns this table into an answer.