What Can a Four-Figure Portable Generator REALLY Power? (You'll Be Surprised)

A four-figure portable generator will run more of your house than you fear and less than the box promises, and the gap between those two facts is one number nobody prints where you can see it. This one works through what a portable can actually power, why the starting watts on the shroud are not the watts you live with, and how a single motor's starting surge, not the total load, decides the night. The answer at the centre of it is a calculation that already exists, in the electrical code, filed with your address, and stamped on the main breaker in your own basement. Nothing here is for sale and no product is recommended.