This information is important before you make any choices on what portable electric generator to buy. If you purchase the wrong one you will be very unhappy and you could actually find it is almost worse than having none at all. Where I live we lose electricity from the power a few times every winter. When we didn't have access to any external portable power generation we just made do. We heated and cooked with the wood stove and dipped water out of the holding tank from our well. It was like camping and kind of exciting.

Then I decided to get a generator. I didn't spend enough time thinking about what I wanted to do with the portable electric generator and so I got the wrong size. I had a 5000 watt unit that you would think would do everything a guy wanted plus some. Well it ran some lights and we could even run the TV and microwave but I forgot one important thing. I didn't have enough power to run the water pump so we still didn't have running water. Boy did I here about that.

Don't get caught like I did. When calculating your power consumption be sure to look at everything you will use and buy a generation unit that will provide all the power you need.

There are three main classes of portable electric generators to consider when you are thinking about purchasing a unit to provide remote power.

• Recreational
• Emergency
• Contractor Grade

A recreational generator is usually from 1000 to 2000 watts and is used when you go camping or RVing.  These can usually run a few lights or a coffee pot, or a TV or stereo.  They are not intended to power more than one or too small items at a time.  Beieve me you don't want to get one too small because it does not work to tell the wifey you want to turn of the TV in order to run the mixer for your drink.

An emergency generator is used to provide power for your home when the power company falters.  Emergency generators come in three general sizes.  Medium (3000-6000 watts), Large (7000-9000 watts) and Extra Large (10,000 watts and bigger).  Be sure to pick the right one for the amount of items you need to run to be comfortable.

A contractor grade generator is one that provide enough power to run several big items at once like saws and drills.  It is important you get one with enough power because skimping on this can cause you to burn up your power equipment.