When the electricity goes out, an emergency generator can power a home so that essential tasks aren’t put on hold. Luckily, homeowners who are wondering “How big of a generator do I need ...

Consumer Reports says to keep in mind that the generator must be at least 5,000 watts to easily connect to a transfer switch and to handle the load of several appliances.

To calculate how much fuel a generator will use during the various stages of load-shedding, we used average estimates of energy consumption per month for different household sizes.