Thanks for everyone’s input. I really appreciate it.
As far as how many watts I would need, I think I could manage everything I need with a 2000w generator as long as I only ran 1 item at a time. 2000w is almost 17 amps at 120v. Everything I want to power is on it’s own 15 amp breaker. I understand that a breaker may allow more than its rated amperage at startup but I think I’ll be ok. I’ll test whatever I get before the power goes out just to make sure.
This weekend I paid special attention to noises in the neighborhood. While I would probably not run the generator at night, I think night is a good representation of what my neighborhood would sound like in a power outage. It is amazing how quiet things get. Late one morning I heard some neighbors through the woods about 1/4 mile away running some small lawn equipment. I’m not sure myself whether I can make an inverter quiet enough that my neighbors WILL NEVER notice it, but I don’t think it is super critical either. Unfortunately due to my property layout I can’t dig a hole or build a permanent structure for the generator so that somewhat limits my options for sound reduction.
I think I will look for something on sale for Black Friday. If that is a small, quiet inverter, then I will see how quiet I can make it. If I find a slightly larger open frame inverter on sale I’ll pick that up and be happy with the larger wattage and just deal with the louder noise.
Thanks again for everyone’s help, and feel free to post here if you have more relevant info.
As far as how many watts I would need, I think I could manage everything I need with a 2000w generator as long as I only ran 1 item at a time. 2000w is almost 17 amps at 120v. Everything I want to power is on it’s own 15 amp breaker. I understand that a breaker may allow more than its rated amperage at startup but I think I’ll be ok. I’ll test whatever I get before the power goes out just to make sure.
This weekend I paid special attention to noises in the neighborhood. While I would probably not run the generator at night, I think night is a good representation of what my neighborhood would sound like in a power outage. It is amazing how quiet things get. Late one morning I heard some neighbors through the woods about 1/4 mile away running some small lawn equipment. I’m not sure myself whether I can make an inverter quiet enough that my neighbors WILL NEVER notice it, but I don’t think it is super critical either. Unfortunately due to my property layout I can’t dig a hole or build a permanent structure for the generator so that somewhat limits my options for sound reduction.
I think I will look for something on sale for Black Friday. If that is a small, quiet inverter, then I will see how quiet I can make it. If I find a slightly larger open frame inverter on sale I’ll pick that up and be happy with the larger wattage and just deal with the louder noise.
Thanks again for everyone’s help, and feel free to post here if you have more relevant info.