About TallyGauge

TallyGauge is an independent information site: calculators, compiled specification databases, and buying guides built from published data, so you can measure before you buy. Our first section covers home standby and portable generators.

Why this site exists

Generator buying advice usually comes from the people selling generators. Manufacturer pages lead with best-case ratings, retailer tables skip the numbers that make one model look worse than another, and sizing advice often amounts to "buy bigger." We built TallyGauge to do the unglamorous work instead: compile the specifications manufacturers actually publish, put them in one comparable table, and show the arithmetic behind every recommendation.

How TallyGauge started

TallyGauge started with a renovation. When this house’s addition went on, the meter moved and the service was upgraded to 200 amps, and the electrician, knowing backup power was on the wish list and that the storms keep getting stronger, suggested a 40-amp GenerLink meter-mounted transfer switch while the panel was open. Good advice, and it left the harder question behind: how much generator? The non-negotiables were the sump pumps (they cycle every few minutes in storm rain) and the septic pump; the fridges were nice to have, and the air conditioners were the luxury item. Both sump pumps are battery-backup units, so when the power dies the battery pump takes over and buys time: a short outage never needs the generator at all, and a long one gives you hours to wheel it out and switch over. But every sizing chart wanted watts, and the nameplates on the fridges, freezers, pumps and ACs answered in amps, running amps only. The load list got built the slow way: photographs of motor labels, locked-rotor amps off the AC plates, one appliance at a time.

The inverter generator that came out of that arithmetic has since carried the house through a multi-day summer outage, AC running, pumps cycling, lights dipping for a second each time a compressor kicked in. This site is that load list, cleaned up and made public: real nameplate figures instead of guesses, the arithmetic shown, and the estimates labelled as estimates. It is run by a homeowner, not a generator dealer, and not an installer.

What this house actually runs, and why

The pick was a 40-amp GenerLink at the meter and an 11,000-watt tri-fuel inverter generator (9,000 watts running on gasoline), with battery backup units on both sump pumps. Generator and transfer switch together came in around $3,000 CAD, against five figures for an installed standby unit. That gap is the whole argument, because of how this house uses backup power:

• The power does not actually go out all that often. Outages here are storm-driven, and the honest worry is the trend: stronger storms, more of them, longer repairs. Paying standby money for automation that might run a few times a year did not pencil out.
• The batteries buy the decision. The sump pumps are the only loads that can hurt the house quickly, and both are battery-backed for hours. A short outage never needs the generator at all; a long one gives you time to wheel it out, plug in one cord, and flip the loads you want.
• The list is managed, on purpose. One big motor at a time, the range and dryer sit the outage out, and the air conditioning is a luxury that runs when there is room. That is the managed outage this site keeps describing, because it is the one that actually happens here.
• A standby would buy automation, not protection. If nobody were home for weeks at a time, or a medical load could not wait, the arithmetic flips and the standby earns its price. That is not this house today.

The sizing calculator can load this exact house as its “See a real house” example: 11,706 watts running, 22,890 watts starting, 26 kW and up if you insist on everything at once. The 9,000-watt unit in the driveway runs it fine, managed. Both numbers are honest; they answer different questions.

How the data is compiled

• Manufacturer figures, as published. Output ratings, fuel consumption, and noise figures come from manufacturer or source pages; every model page links its source.
• Graded on the fuel you will burn. Most standby generators put out less on natural gas than on propane. Our tools rate each model on the fuel you select, not the headline brochure number.
• Blanks stay blank. Where a source does not publish a comparable figure, the database shows "Not in our database yet" rather than an estimate dressed up as a spec.
• Prices are compiled street prices with a compiled date shown, not live quotes. Installation costs in our guides are broken out separately, because the generator alone is usually only part of the bill.

How the sizing calculator works

The generator sizing calculator totals the running watts of the appliances you select, adds the single largest motor surge (motors rarely all start in the same second), applies roughly 20% headroom, and rounds up to a standard residential standby size. Where a scenario rests on an estimate, the soft-starter scenario, for example, the page says so and cites the source it follows. If your appliances' nameplate figures differ from our typicals, the calculator lets you enter your own numbers, and marks those rows as yours.

What TallyGauge is not

• We do not sell generators, install them, or take orders.
• We do not run accounts or ask for personal information to use the tools; our privacy policy covers what analytics collect.
• Nothing here replaces the nameplate and manual of your specific equipment, or a licensed installer's judgment about your panel, gas supply, and local codes.

Corrections

Specifications change and sources occasionally publish errors. When we find a figure that cannot be verified against a real model or source, we remove it rather than repeat it. Verified corrections to anything on the site are welcome at [email protected].