Starting Watts Vs Running Watts

Last Updated on December 3, 2024

If you have a generator you’re probably aware that your device is capable of supplying a certain number of watts of power. This number is frequently listed on the generator itself, and was certainly on the box that your generator came in.

Many people might assume that there was only one watt value in play here, but they would be wrong. All generators have two important watt values: the starting watts and the running watts.

In this article we will walk you through the basic differences between these two watt values and what they mean for your generator and your appliances.

What’s the Difference Between Starting Watts and Running Watts?

This is a great question, and the answer is pretty simple!

Starting watts refer to the amount of power required to start an appliance up from the off state. Most appliances require a big burst of power to start up but they don’t need the same high level of power to work once the power up process is complete.

Running watts, on the other hand, refer to the amount of power that an appliance needs to run once it’s been powered on successfully.

To give a logical example, let’s think about the power required for an AC unit or a refrigerator. In both of these cases, when you turn these appliances on for the very first time they will be at room temperature and will be trying to get a lot colder in a short amount of time.

A refrigerator will need a lot of power to boot up and cool down initially, but it won’t take much power to keep a refrigerator cold once it reaches the desired temperature because these appliances were designed to trap cold air.

AC units are similar, except that they are trying to cool your house or room instead of a cooler box.

If you turn on an AC unit in the summer time it will have to work pretty hard to get the room totally cooled down to the temperature you want it. Once the temperature is at the desired level, however, your AC unit will only have to maintain that temperature and won’t have to keep turning hot air into cold air.

In essence, this is the same concept described in Newton’s first law of motion. This law states that an object in motion will stay in motion, and an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force.

Once the refrigerator is cold and the room is cold this is the equivalent to being “in motion” in the terms of Newton’s law.

What Are Some Examples?

To further illustrate the difference in power required to start an appliance vs. run it, here is a list of some common electronics and appliances as well as the power required to start and to run them:

Appliance	Starting Watt	Running
Laptops	250-500	250-500
Desktop Computer	600-800	600-800
Blender	850	400
Lightbulb	as indicated on bulb	as indicated on bulb
Portable Fan	120	40
Dishwasher	500-600	500-600
Coffee Maker	600	600
Slow Cooker	170-300	170-300
Small Flat Screen Tv (20″)	150	150
10,000 BTU Air Conditioner	5000	1500
Laser Printer	2000	500
Garage Door Opener	2,350	875
Well Water Pump	2100	1000
12000 BTU Window AC	9,750	3250
Clothes dryer (gas)	1800	700
Clothes dryer (electric)	1350	5400

As you can see, many appliances require exorbitantly more wattage to startup than they do to run continuously, which is why it’s very important to look closely at the information on your appliances and your generator.

In fact, your generator may not even list the running wattage in a place that’s easy to find. Generators also have two wattage capacities that they can provide your appliances. Usually the number you see listed when a generator is advertised refers to the starting watts and not the running watts. Don’t be fooled into thinking that a generator is actually capable of providing the power it claims to on a continuous basis, because this is often not the case. This might shock you, but it’s largely to do with the fact that these manufacturers are trying to sell their products, and the higher number for the starting watts is more impressive to potential customers.

The cool thing about generators is that they are capable of exceeding their own limits in a very limited window of time, but they can’t sustain that level long term. This is an illustration of the difference between running and stating watts for a generator.

They can produce a certain number of watts on a continual level, but they are capable of exceeding their own running wattage limits to help an appliance start up.

How to Find The Running and Starting Watts of My Appliances

This is pretty simple to do. You can usually get to the bottom of this particular mystery by looking at the user manual or on the device or appliance itself. If this fails you can look online by searching for your specific device and the words “starting and running watts.” When searching online, be sure to include the year that your product was manufactured because there can be slight differences based on updated models that might affect the watts.

How Can I Keep Track of My Appliance Watts?

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by all of this new information coming your way, don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough, and as soon as you do you’ll be on the way to making sure your generator is running as smoothly as possible and your appliances aren’t at risk of any power surges.

Here are some simple steps to counting your device watts easily:

1. Make a list of all of the different appliances and devices you want to power. Look at the manuals or labels for each of these devices and write the running watts on a sheet of paper. Once you have all of these watts listed you can add them up and you will have your total for running watts. Once you have this value you can compare it to the watts your generator is capable of supplying. Experts suggest that your running watt total for your devices never exceed more than 75% of your generator’s running watts.
2. Next, you’ll want to look at the listed starting watts for each of your appliances as well. Take the highest value from this list and add it to your running watts. This number should not exceed the maximum starting watts of your generator.
3. Once you have both of these numbers, you can plug them into a product database. These databases are helpful and let you filter by starting and running watts.

See Also: Jackery Explorer 500

Some Additional Tips

Here are some additional tips to help you out during this process.

• You can lower your power requirements to the minimum possible value by powering your appliances on in the order of highest starting watts to lowest starting watts. This process is helpful for reducing the starting watts requirements you might have.

• Keep in mind that if your generator is intending to power an entire family home, office, work site, etc, it is very likely that multiple people will be inadvertently using the power supply at any given time. In most cases it is recommended that you only start up one device at a time, but this might not be possible or be very difficult to orchestrate when multiple people are involved. Therefore if you are intending for your generator to provide power to a lot of people at once you should probably opt for a larger generator to be safe

• Although the way we described it earlier makes it sound like there are either starting or running watts, this is not necessarily the case every time. There are some types of appliances that may require surges or bursts of power to run effectively, and this should be factored into your calculations. These include motorized appliances with speed settings like washing machines, as well as many other appliances as well.

See Also: What appliances can a 1000 Watt generator run

In Conclusion

We know it can be confusing trying to navigate wattages and the various requirements to keep your generator running smoothly, but we know you’ll get the hang of it in no time.

We hope this article was helpful and that you feel more comfortable with the difference between starting and running watts.

If you have a generator you’re probably aware that your device is capable of supplying a certain number of watts of power. This number is frequently listed on the generator itself, and was certainly on the box that your generator came in.

Many people might assume that there was only one watt value in play here, but they would be wrong. All generators have two important watt values: the starting watts and the running watts.

In this article we will walk you through the basic differences between these two watt values and what they mean for your generator and your appliances.