I'm in the planning stage of building a new house in Washington state, and I want a standby generator for it. Most of the articles I read on the internet say to get an ATS with the same amperage rating as my electric service panel, which will be 200 amps.
But I don't want whole house coverage. All I would really need is to keep the refrigerator/freezer going (~200 watts), the ignition sparks for the propane stove and water heater (negligible power, and I could probably even just use a match), a few outlets for lamps and maybe TV (~500 watts total), and a few outlets to keep my phone and laptop charged (just a few watts). I'm not trying to live as if I had full power; I just don't want the food in the freezer to spoil, and I want to be able to take a shower, cook a meal, and communicate with the outside world. It seems I would need no more than 1KW to do all that, so to my non-electrician mind, a 50-amp switch would be more than adequate.
So my question is, is there any reason I can't use a 50-amp generator/switch setup, which is thousands of dollars cheaper, even though I have a 200-amp panel? Thank you for any advice.
Submitted February 13, 2017 at 05:16AM by alleyoopoop http://ift.tt/2lEDHiA electricians
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