Living in earthquake country means I really need to get a generator for when the San Andreas fault lets loose and sinks all of coastal Kalifornia.

I, however, am a moron when it comes to understanding electrical loads.  I need to have enough juice to power my refrigerator and my outside freezer (stand up style, not a chest freezer) at the same time.  Basically, I don't want to have to buy a giant generator if a smaller one will run both.

Can I use something like a 2000 watt generator / inverter to run both?  Or do I need something like a 3500 watt generator?  From what I have been able to research, I would need about 1800 watts to start the fridge, but much less once its on.  Once the fridge is up and running, could I then start the freezer, which also takes about 1800 watts to start?  

Also, finding a decently priced, CARB compliant dual-fuel inverter is like trying to find a goddamn unicorn.

one day i will finish this:

http://losdos.dyndns.org/wiki/reference:generator_oracle

in there you will find tables with approximations for power requirements of common household electrical appliances.

ar-jedi

2k should do you just fine I would imagine. As for the CARB part, I really got nothing.

edit: https://www.championpowerequipment.com/product/100204-3100-watt-dual-fuel-inverter/

Check out generators.com , they have good info there.
Honda inverters are really the gold standard from what I researched.
Run non ethanol premium or avgas to avoid carburetor issues if you can get that gas in Komifornia.
I have a Honda 6500'watt that I have as a back up genny and have never had to use it, but start it every 2 weeks and use PRI fuel treatment in my storage gas.
Good luck.

Edit, I have the Honda 6500 Is inverter that is not for sale in Cali..... guess it causes cancer or some other shit.

you don't need to run them both 100% of the time, just run one for a while then the other.

Freezers can be run once a day if left shut, keep the fridge running and once a day open the freezer to get what you need, run it and unplug it.
You will want to get some LED lights, sitting in the dark sucks and dont forget water, even if you have city water it may need to be filtered/pumped.
Chances are you will not have a endless supply of gas, the gen should be shut down 18 hrs a day to stretch the gas.

If weight is not a problem go with the 3000 watt inverter generator. I have the Yamaha EF3000 iSEB that has the extra 500 watts boost on a 3000 watt gen, for starting fridges and motors more easily. (3500 watts starting power). The 3000 watt inverter does not burn that much more fuel than the 2000 watt inverter gen when you are running 1000 watts and under, and the 3000 doesn't really burn much more until you get past 2000 watts. Having the extra wattage is nice if needed.
It's tri fuel and will run on gasoline, propane, or natural gas. It gives you many better options on fuel.
This generator came from US Carburator in Summerville, WV. You can order the tri fuel kits also for about any other generator made, but they sell the yamahas with the tri fuel kit already installed if you like.
Right now however because of the hurricanes about all generators are scarce.
If you go Honda or Yamaha you can't go wrong. They are both top of the line and will give you many many years of service.

I have a collection of generators that I for some reason have collected over the years. And while the Honda EU2000 is a great generator, it just don't cut it on starting A fridge or freezer correctly, especially if you got another item plugged in.
You can link two of the Honda EU2000 gens togeather for a total of 4000 watts and this is a great option if weight bothers you, because the 3000 watt gens start getting heavy to carry by yourself. And the EU2000 gens are easy to carry by themselves.
I can't emphasize enough to go tri fuel since gasoline is the first thing to run out during a crisis, while every store will still have 20lbs propane cylinders for sell.
I'm not going to get into my solar panel setup in this post, but I have that also.



Yamaha EF3000 iSEB




All the small gens for a family photo. Some are tri fuel and some are just gasoline only in the photo.
However I got kits to convert them to tri fuel if needed.




Honda eu2000 tri fuel in action on propane.




My big  20 HP gen that's tri fuel. So I can run my 220 volt appliances and my well pump for water. Here it is hooked up to my natural gas stub out.




Here's the big gen running on propane.








Bought this one before I found the tri fuel kits for the others. It's a Chinese gen, but it's been great.
It runs on gasoline or propane.



Bought this one for my elderly mothers house.




While I'm at it here's my battery backup and charger I built for it. Did I mention it's tri fuel also ?

My Honda 2000 easily ran my fridge and could have easily run another, and I think the only issue you might have is if both the fridge and freezer compressor are trying to start at the same time.  You can avoid that by dialing the temps down so they never cycle off and on by themselves, and starting and stopping them one at a time.  You can stretch the capacity of a small generator pretty far if you intelligently manage loads, especially start-up loads.  And by rotating loads such as disconnecting the fridge while you run the microwave alone, etc.

I can run one or the other with power for modem, electronics, gas heat squirrel cage blower with EU2000.   Swap freezer and fridge out manually.   I'd suggest 3000 if you don't need 240V.

Wow, some great responses and drool-worthy setups!  I had no idea that there were conversion kits that allowed them to run on propane and natural gas - that's awesome!

I'm leaning toward a 3500 watt inverter, which looks like it would be able to run both my fridge and my freezer, but my budget says a 2k and run one item at a time.  My freezer is in my garage, and I saw some exhaust kits that would enable me to keep the inverter inside the garage.  This would keep it out of the elements, help muffle the sound, and help to keep it secure.

That’s very well done.  I’m sure it’s a lot of work but I hope you stay with it.

Impressive!

Since we're talking gennies....

Read on another forum, read so many can't remember which one, that commercial generators are not good for home backup because they build them to be more sensitive to distortion.  Generator breakers continually trip because of distortion.

Does that sound right?

OP, I run a 14 cubic foot upright freezer, a 20 CF chest freezer, a refrigerator, wifi, tv and lap top and a couple of led lamps from my EU2000i. Freezers and fridges don't use much power. If you run your freezers and fridge 4 hours on 4 hours off they will stay hard frozen. If you are opening your fridge door you will need to run your genny more often. Get a Honda, get a Honda, get a Honda. Mine is 9 years old and starts on the first pull.

I can tell you first hand what I am running as we speak in Northeast Florida due to Hurricane Irma.

I have a Honda 2000 Inverter that has been running close to 16-20 hours a day since I lost power Monday morning at 0030.

Stand Up freezer, Fridge in Garage (Smaller fridge than you'd have in a home, has separate freezer up top with own door), and full size fridge in home.  I also have a 6000 BTU window unit in my master bedroom, tv, dvd, player, small bedside fan, and I-phone charger.  Two nights ago for fun I was able to run everything through the night without any issue.  Clearly burns more fuel than normal, think I went through one gallon in 5 hours when it has normally been a gallon every 6+ hours.

I have only run everything all together once as it hasn't been needed. Only run the AC, TV and Charger at night when the sun goes down.  The Inverter has handled running the fridges and freezer together no problem what so ever for several hours at a time.  I've been running the freezer once a day for 6 hours or so and fridges constantly.  

Only turning it off when I have to leave as the only down side I see to the Honda Inverter is a small child could steal it on a bicycle, so I've been securing it anytime I leave.

no, it's stinks of internet BS.

ar-jedi

excellent reference point for what can be run on a small generator with minimal gas consumption.

ar-jedi

Something to keep in mind with a generator is how far it is from stuff you want to run.

I learned with an old 1k watt honda, pre invertor version, that the crappy pencil thin 100ft extension cords are not going to let the generator get its full potential to the tool.

I spent a few hundred bucks on heavy duty extension cords.

I have larger generators and consider the extension cords to have been a great investment.

Anyway, part of running one thing here and then shut it down and run something else is you might need to move the generator to where it is needed.

Watch where the generator exhaust is going.  like collecting in the garage and getting into the house while running your upright freezer in the garage.

When running the generator get the big thing running and then bring little stuff out to charge like laptops or phones or whatever.

For overnight if you have a deepcycle battery or something to make your own little portable power station you can watch a dvd or something and not worry about running the laptop battery dead and what not.

At night having the generator shut off is nice noise wise.

So, I did a very similar scenario this summer. I had a Honda 1000eu (900 watts continuous) and it powered my frige and freezer (upright) just fine.  (Our local library has those Kill-O-Watt thangs for check out so I nabbed one of those to check the continuous loads prior to this experiment.) Turns out that either appliance took about 110-140 watts. That doesn't account for "startup" loading...but the Honda didn't seem to care. Since the frige and the freezer worked so well for a couple of days, I plugged in another (empty) freezer. That worked great for about 10 hours but then the overload got tripped on the Honda...so I guess that was pressing it.

Having said all this, I would get a 1800/2000 watt genny instead of the 1000eu if I could do it all over. I have a camper on the back of my pickup and it would be happier with the larger Honda.

But I used what I had and I was fairly surprised/impressed. YMMV.

My 2 cents.
I also live in earthquake country, San Jose.
I just received my Champion dual fuel inverter generator from Lowes, ordered online.
I ordered the 3400/3100 watt generator.
But when I picked it up, it was the 3500/3200 watt generator, the Champion stock # was different, but the Lowes stock # was the same as I ordered.
Works for me.

I fired it up on Saturday, using the propane, for the start of the 5-hour break-in period.
Ran it with the econo option on and it is very quiet, IMO.
It is electric and pull start.
It has (2) 20amp outlets, (1) 30amp RV type outlet.
Has (1) 12volt DC outlet.
Has wheels and a fold-away pull handle, 110 lbs.

Just got it, but I think I will be very happy with it.

Honda EB 2800 with a trifuel conversion and a furniture moving dolly was under $1300 total and can run fridge/freezer/tv and router. I can also use my battery tender to charge up my trolling battery box for my skiff and then use the usb out on that at night to power iPad, phone charging, and mobile nebulizer. We also have a Powerhorse 2000i Honda knockoff that has worked very well.

Rockyriver

What all can you tell me about your North Star generator with the Honda motor?

I recently picked up a used one and don't know much about it.

Mine has been flawless on working.
I have had too replace the spark plugs in it several times. They don't look bad but just seem to burn out. I was told that NGK had some spark plug issues and that was to blame.
IMHO the North star generators are top notch gens from what Ive seen. Northern Tool uses good parts to make the North Star Gens and they seem to hold up well the few that friends have and me.

Thank you, sir