Power Outage Insurance: Size a Generator or Battery Backup That Actually Runs Your House

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List essential appliances and read their running watts
30 min
Start at the device, not at a store’s sizing chart. Walk every room and write down what must run when the grid dies: refrigerator and freezer, the gas furnace’s blower, well pump, sump pump, internet gear, a handful of lights, phone and laptop chargers, any medical device.
Take each running-watt number from the source closest to the machine:
- Nameplate or label — motor housings, back panels and power bricks list watts, or amps: watts = volts × amps.
- Manual or spec sheet — search the model number plus “running watts”.
- Federal wattage table — the Department of Energy estimates linked below cover unlabelled items (a frost-free 16 cu ft refrigerator lists at 725 W, a furnace fan at 750 W).
Leave no line blank — an estimated figure beats an omitted appliance.
- Walk each room and list every device that must run during an outage — cold storage, heat, water, internet, lights, chargers, medical gear
- Find each item’s nameplate or manual and record its running watts — multiply volts × amps when only amps appear
- Copy wattage estimates from the federal Department of Energy table linked above for anything unlabelled
- Sum the running-watts column and write the total at the bottom of the worksheet

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