Health & Fitness
What is Your Home’s Essential Load?
Before you rush out to buy a generator, do a little math! Here's how to estimate your home's essential load for electric energy.
When your electric utility talks about load, they mean anything that is plugged in and drawing power. All buildings have a base load, which is all the appliances that run no matter if the building occupant is awake or home or not. Peak load is the energy required to support that building when its appliances are busiest.
But with Sandy’s inflicting such massive and lengthy power outages throughout the lower Hudson Valley, let’s consider a third kind of load, the essential load. Let’s define the essential load as those few appliances you really wanted to use during the depths of the outage. In other words, your essential load is a fraction of your base load which is a fraction of your peak load.
For most people, that is probably heat for the home, a refrigerator, some lamps, and a way to charge a cell phone or laptop.
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If you want to buy a generator, you will need to figure out what size will cover your essential load. Most portable generators are designed for construction sites to run power tools. These equate to running one room of your home, unless it’s the kitchen, in which case, let’s call it one-half of one room.
Permanent petroleum-based generators are bigger, much more expensive, and can run more stuff, but also use more fuel.
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So how do I figure out my essential load? Make a list of your appliances. Multiply the watts each draw by the hours per day it runs to determine the watt-hours per day as the load that appliance represents. Add up all your essential appliances to find your home’s daily essential energy requirement.
Even for smaller homes, the resulting essential load may be close to 5,000 watt-hours (or 5 kilowatt-hours). Note: 1 kilowatt-hour is 1,000 watt-hours and is the energy required (load) when running ten 100 watt bulbs for one hour.
The list below may help you figure out the load size your home represents. This table is one Croton homeowner’s list of essentials for a family of four with two home offices.
Table 1 One family's essential load#
Category
AC Appliances
Watts
Hours/Day
Watt hrs/day
1
Refrigerators / Freezers
Refrig/Freezer 20cf 1.8Kwh per day (15 hours)
540
3.33
1798.2
1
Boilers
Oil fired Boiler, Circulation Pump, Ignition, Burner Motor for hot water radiators
1148.25
5
Lights
Compact Fluorescent 16W (Incandescent: 60 watt equivalent
16
5
400
1
TVs / Electronics
TV 25" Color
400
1
400
1
Other Appliances
Toaster 800-1500W
1500
0.25
375
4
TVs / Electronics
Electric Clock
3
24
288
1
Computers
Computer Laptop 20-85W
85
3
255
1
Coffee Makers
Coffee Maker
800
0.25
200
1
Microwaves
Microwave 600-1500W
1500
0.08
125
3
Chargers
Cell phone charger
18
1
54
1
TVs / Electronics
VCR / Cable Box
40
1
40
1
Computers
Inkjet printer
25
0.05
1.25
1
Other Appliances
Shaver
15
0.05
0.75
Total
5085.45
Your essentials list may look different. If you have well-water, the water pump is probably on your essentials list! The table below lists more appliances with average watt values.
Table 2 Other potential essentials#
Category
AC Appliances
Watts
Hours/Day
Watt hrs/day
Air Conditioners
Humidifier 13gal
175
0
Air Conditioners
Window air conditioner, small
660
6
0
Air Conditioners
Central AC 10,000 BTU
1500
0
Air Conditioners
Window air conditioner 21000BTU
3250
0
Air Conditioners
Central AC 24,000 BTU
3800
0
Blowers / Pumps
Water Pump 250-500
500
3
0
Blowers / Pumps
Furnace Fan Blower- 1/3 hp
700
4
0
Blowers / Pumps
well pump, 120vAC, 100 gal/day
1000
0.33
0
Coffee Makers
Coffee Pot
200
0.25
0
Computers
laser printer
90
0.25
0
Computers
Computer Desktop
150
4
0
Heaters
Space Heater
1800
0
Heaters
Heat Pump
4700
0
Lights
Compact Fluorescent 11W (Incandescent: 40 watt equivalent)
11
0
Lights
Compact Fluorescent 20W (Incandescent: 75 watt equivalent)
20
0
Lights
Lights: 100W Incandescent
100
0
Other Appliances
Vacuum Cleaner Hand
100
0
Other Appliances
Sewing Machine
100
0
Other Appliances
food blender or processor
200
0.05
0
Other Appliances
Electric Blanket
200
0
Other Appliances
Vacuum Cleaner Upright 200-700
700
0
Other Appliances
Iron
1000
0
Other Appliances
Blow Dryer
1000
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
DC 4 cu. ft. frig
0
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
freezer, 10 cu. ft., standard
0
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
freezer, 7.5 cu. ft, efficient
0
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
frig, 4 cu. ft
0
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
Sunfrost 12cf DC (7 hours)
70
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
Sunfrost 16cf DC (7 hours)
112
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
Sunfrost Freezer 19cf (10 hours)
112
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
electric blanket
180
4
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
Freezer 14cf (14 hours)
350
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
Freezer 14cf (15 hours)
440
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
Refrig/Freezer 16cf 1.6Kwh per day (13 hours)
475
3.33
0
Refrigerators / Freezers
frig/freezer, standard (for an emergency)
1200
1.6
0
Room Fans
ceiling fan, DC
15
6
0
Room Fans
Table Fan 10-25W
25
0
Room Fans
Ceiling Fan 10-50W
50
0
0
Room Fans
ceiling fan, AC
60
6
0
Stoves / Ovens
Hot Plate
1200
0
0
Stoves / Ovens
Electric Stove per 8" element
2100
0.25
0
Tools
1/4" Drill
250
0
Tools
1/2" Drill
750
0
Tools
7-1/4" Circular Saw
900
0
Tools
1" Drill
1000
0
Tools
3" Belt Sander
1000
0
Tools
12" Chain Saw
1100
0
Tools
14" Band Saw
1100
0
Tools
9" Disc Sander
1200
0
Tools
8-1/4" Circular Saw
1400
0
TVs / Electronics
Clock Radio
1
0
TVs / Electronics
CB Radio
5
0
TVs / Electronics
satellite TV receiver (on switched outlet)
20
3
0
TVs / Electronics
1TV 2" B&W
20
0
TVs / Electronics
Stereo 10-30W
30
0
TVs / Electronics
Satellite Dish
30
0
TVs / Electronics
CD Player
35
0
TVs / Electronics
stereo system
40
0
TVs / Electronics
TV 19" Color
70
0
TVs / Electronics
TV, 19", color
85
0
Washers / Dryers
clothes washer, Staber
200
0.75
0
Washers / Dryers
Washing Machine Manual
300
1
0
Washers / Dryers
Cloths Dryer Electric
400
1
0
Washers / Dryers
Cloths Dryer Gas heated 300-400W
400
1
0
Washers / Dryers
Washing Machine Automatic
500
1
0
Washers / Dryers
clothes washer, standard
700
0.75
0
Before you rush out to buy a generator, do a little math!
Note: The values for watts per appliance in table are averages, and therefore estimates. For example, refrigerators can and do vary widely in their energy loads. Double check these average watts against your appliance manuals and consult with your electrician!
