# California power outage - can people use home generators? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 9, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546 "2019-10-09T19:38:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546/41 "2019-10-13T20:09:26Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > People will be surprised at the rise in their natural gas bill. > > My generator was on for 5 days and the utility bill rose by over $60. It can add up quickly. It’s about 3 times more expensive than electricity from the utility. Well, sure. But Mom’s insulin and all the food in the fridge was saved. Sounds like a wash to me, but, yeah, I get that people will be surprised. ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546/42 "2019-10-13T20:12:01Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Something also to be aware of if you are using a generator to run your fridge is that it is likely to shorten the life of your compressor substantially. > > When the compressor starts up, it usually pulls quite a bit of power from the capacitance that is in the power lines. It uses much more power for those first fractions of a second than it does in normal operation. This is fine for grid power. > > What is not fine is when you are trying to power that with a generator. You don’t have capacitance of hundreds of miles of wire, you only have it of your house and what is hooked up. If the generator is not overpowered, if it is putting out just enough to power your fridge, then it will likely make it hard for the compressor to get up to speed, and wear it out prematurely. Fridges are cheap. With that said, what you are talking about is the fridge causing a voltage dip since the generator needs time to respond to the sudden load increase. I think some model of fridges may have easy start capacitors to reduce this dip. Anyways the voltage sags until the generator can respond. Call that a second or 2. And the windings in the fridge motor get hotter. I don’t think under normal circumstances this extra heating over a normal start causes any measurable wear at all. What kills a fridge eventually, I think, is either one of the bearing surfaces in the compressor wearing out, a seal wearing out, or piping leaks draining the refrigerant and leaving the compressor trying to compress air. I would agree that if the fridge motor were already about to seize from bearing failure, it would overheat more on a generator start and might burn the enamel on the wiring. But this wasn’t really the cause of death. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546/43 "2019-10-13T20:50:41Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > Fridges are cheap. With that said, what you are talking about is the fridge causing a voltage dip since the generator needs time to respond to the sudden load increase. I think some model of fridges may have easy start capacitors to reduce this dip. > > Anyways the voltage sags until the generator can respond. Call that a second or 2. And the windings in the fridge motor get hotter. > > I don’t think under normal circumstances this extra heating over a normal start causes any measurable wear at all. What kills a fridge eventually, I think, is either one of the bearing surfaces in the compressor wearing out, a seal wearing out, or piping leaks draining the refrigerant and leaving the compressor trying to compress air. > > I would agree that if the fridge motor were already about to seize from bearing failure, it would overheat more on a generator start and might burn the enamel on the wiring. But this wasn’t really the cause of death. I don’t know about fridges being cheap. You can get a cheap one, but most tend to run enough that you don’t want to just be throwing them out. My brother had a bit of a tiff with the local power utilities, and lived on generator power for a while. Killed a fridge every couple months. Looking into it, a fridge generally needs about 3 to 4 times the starting power as it needs for running. If it cannot pull this, then it will not only possibly damage the compressor, but the generator as well. Most household outlets provide about 1500 watts max, but they can go up to higher loads briefly. With a fridge plugged in that uses 700 watts to run, it will need somewhere in the 2000’s watts to start. If your generator only puts out 1500 watts per line, then it will not be able to put out the power needed to get the compressor properly running, even thought the nominally 1500 watts house outlet can. ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546/44 "2019-10-13T21:26:14Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I don’t know about fridges being cheap. You can get a cheap one, but most tend to run enough that you don’t want to just be throwing them out. My brother had a bit of a tiff with the local power utilities, and lived on generator power for a while. Killed a fridge every couple months. Well, I stand corrected then. Empirical beats theoretical. I guess fridge motors are engineered such that this happens. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546/45 "2019-10-13T22:34:28Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Something also to be aware of if you are using a generator to run your fridge is that it is likely to shorten the life of your compressor substantially. > > When the compressor starts up, it usually pulls quite a bit of power from the capacitance that is in the power lines. It uses much more power for those first fractions of a second than it does in normal operation. This is fine for grid power. > > What is not fine is when you are trying to power that with a generator. You don’t have capacitance of hundreds of miles of wire, you only have it of your house and what is hooked up. If the generator is not overpowered, if it is putting out just enough to power your fridge, then it will likely make it hard for the compressor to get up to speed, and wear it out prematurely. Adding that a fridge does not require that much power even during startup. I measured mine and it ran at about 200 watts and started at 600 watts. Not a big load on a generator which can supply a startup surge of basically a order of magnitude more. Mine doesn’t even seem to slow down for the fridge kicking in to any noticeable degree as it does with some other devices. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546/46 "2019-10-14T23:17:57Z")
How does this affect a battery based system like a powerwall? ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546/47 "2019-10-14T23:48:43Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > How does this affect a battery based system like a powerwall? These provide much cleaner and more accurate power than a generator. The powerwall’s lithium batteries can provide sudden surges of current as needed and there are also capacitors to help in the short term. So the sine wave produced will be very accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546/48 "2019-10-15T10:44:15Z")
Per random googling: “the Powerwall 2 is a 13.5kWh capacity rechargeable lithium-ion battery that boasts 7kW peak and 5kW continuous power.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-power-outage-can-people-use-home-generators/841546.md?page=2)