Electrical – How to determine the capacity of the generator when it has a separate starting watts capacity

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I have a Briggs & Stratton Storm Responder generator that is rated at 5500 watts with a 8250 startup watts capacity. The user manual is a little confusing: it seems to state that I have to take the starting wattage of each appliance into account when I compute the wattage load so I don't exceed the maximum running capacity (5500 watts, in my case). So what do I do with the "8250"? How does that factor into the equation?

Best Answer

If you take the running watts that should be enough. The starting watts should be taken into account by the 8250 number. This is assuming every connected load will not be starting at the exact same time.