Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Generator

My wife is worried we will have a power blackout this summer and our freezers full of meat will be lost. Need a generator big enough to power 2 freezers and a refrigerator. The on line calculators seem to be very generous in how much wattage is needed. Any of you have any experience in this area?

Get a meter and measure how much power they use.

Purchased Champion 8000 watt tri fuel, connected to natural gas and hooked up to the house through transfer box, have 1 freezer, 2 refrigerators and also hooked up every room except for central Air, tested it and it all works.

4500 should be plenty[would most likely run all three at once even though you won't need to].

Get a 2 - 2.5 K, run each for a few hours and keep the lids closed as much as possible. also, the fuller the freezer, the more efficient it is.

One of these will tell you how much your appliances are consuming and will help you size the generator. 110 only of course...

Kill-A-Watt

Code here used to require a separate 20amp circuit for a fridge, but they might draw 12-15 at most. Getting more efficient all the time. But 110Vx15amp=1650 watts,. So a 5000w gen, minimum could be required to power all 3 units. Chances are all 3 units will not start/run at the same time, but plan for that.
Gens are rated at max output & continuous. Use the continuous rating or number.

All appliances have a nomenclature plate or sticker that indicates amperage draw or power requirements.

Always buy bigger than what you think you will need.

All appliances have a label showing the wattage they use. If it's anything for cooling, double that for startup wattage.

Don't go under a 3500, the 5000 is a safe bet.

A lot of fools will say they run there's on less, what they don't get is they'll run but the voltage will be weak causing your compressors to run hot.

For those that have a little 2000 and find themselves needing to power multible refrigeration devices with what they have on hand
Alternate, run one for 3 or 4 hours then unplug and run another.

If your not opening the doors and they are not sitting in direct sunlight alternating will work out fine. Don't hesitate to throw some blankets or sleeping bags over a chest freezer for some added insulation if needed at times like that as well.

It’s comforting to have a generator big enough to run all your important appliances but if you’re not home to crank it up, you’re SOL.

I like the idea of putting gallon milk jugs filled with water in a chest freezer to provide cooling if power goes down.

For emergency running with the load in rotation that is enough. The generator will be far lighter and easier to use and you will find lots of other uses for it. get bigger and it will have just one use as a back-up.

Run your freezers as cold as possible. Stuff in it will keep better, the cost to run it will be lower, and in an emergency the lower starting temperatures will help food remain frozen longer and more easily.

Had a 3500 to run freezer, fridge, sump, stuff like that. Worked but wanted bigger, plus I got sick and tired of extension cords.

Bought a 12K and wired it in with a lockout switch. Not perfect but atleast I can actually run everything in the house if need be. Won't but for what we would run, no problems....for what it is anyway

I was done peckering around.

Got a 16kW Generac natural gas standby and a 200A ATS.

2 zones of central AC (2 compressor units)
2 furnaces
2 refrigerator/freezers
1 big upright freezer
Spring pump
All the other little stuff and lights

Never worry again. About anything.............home or not

The "Boss" and me went looking for a generator. We knew lots of folks who had "Onan" generators in their living quarter horse trailers.
Ran good.
Ran quiet.
A tank of fuel would last about 8 hours, give or take.
At a RV dealership, we found an Onan. Checking it out, I noticed it had four 110v outlets...AND...one 220v outlet.
Knowing that having a 220v outlet, it would run everything I'd ever want to plug into a generator, that's what we got.
NOTE: this IS NOT an "Onan" ad!!!
It fit our budget and fulfilled our needs.

ANOTHER note:
Onan is Chinese built. They are good generators and have a good engine........but the coupling between the motor and the generator leaves a lot to be desired. As long as the generator isn't dropped or takes a heavy shock, you're ok.
Our generator sat unused for several years. The fuel tank filled up with crud.
The local small engine shop got it running easily enough, but a new fuel tank was unbelievably expensive and almost nonexistent.
The repair shop left a couple of feet of gas line.
The generator now has a 6 gallon outboard fuel tank, complete with priming bulb and shutoff valve.
This time, the generator gets about a 30 minute workout each month.

Wattage used while running is usually not the problem, it's the starting amps. Typically a large fridge or freezer will require somewhere around 2000-2500 watts to start, but once running, it will only require 700ish-900ish watts. I run a freezer and fridge all the time with a 3000 (3500 surge) watt generator. Plug one in and let it get going and run for a few minutes and then plug in the other. 800 for the running one + 2200 for the starting one = 3000ish watts for a few seconds (until the second one gets running). Then they are both running on about 1700ish watts.

there are kits on line to add the boat tank to most of the smaller gennys.

an extra 3 gal saves you adding adding fuel all the time.

^^^ This ^^^

And might want give some thought to eventually getting a second portable gen set around the same wattage output and run them in parallel in case you decide you want to power more stuff.

Also, if you're powering modern digital electronic appliances you'll most likely be needing to go with an inverter generator.

Winter time I would grab the 4500 watt generator from our property, that way the 4500 could run the furnace and our 3500 would take care of a few things in the house. Sucked but gas was cheaper then.