It’s portable alright. It can’t be portable if you can’t carry it around with acceptable effort. The more powerful a suitcase generator is, the more it gets bulky and heavy. You won’t get the benefits of portability there. Don’t get carried away when you start assessing the appliances you need powered in an emergency.
A 1000watt to 30000watt generator is quite powerful to drive the most basic appliances. Computers and battery chargers for your cellphones take no more than 500 watts, so you can have a TV and your lights powered at the same time. You may have to do some power management schemes where you power some and do your task sequentially. Bear in mind that power outages rarely last more than a few minutes or hours. If they last for days, you must have had a major calamity that caused it.
Suitcase generators can range from the small hand-carried suitcase types with 1000 watts to larger 4000watters. For the most part, the typical household can get by with a small suitcase generator to power the essential appliances. But if you do some carpentry work at home on a regular basis, those power tools are power hungry and will require generators in the 5000watts ranges.
It’s quiet
Generators are generally noisy. So much so that they need to be operated outside the house where noise can dissipate better. Typical room noise can be tolerated in the 45 decibel to 55-decibel ranges. Generators can easily exceed that to annoying levels in the 70-decibel range. Suitcase generators have better noise isolation thanks to their plastic molded casing that also make them look neat and uncluttered. For city dwellers in condos, apartments and town houses with no backyard to boast, this is the best option.
Its environment friendly
The use of newer fuels results to generally less noisy and cleaner emissions. Gasoline ad diesel-powered generators do emit noxious and poisonous carbon monoxide fumes. The newer generation generators feed on propane or liquid petrol as well has natural gas. These have engines that are not only quieter but have cleaner exhaust emissions.
It fits your needs
At the end of the day, the suitcase generator should be everything you expect it to be in terms of reliably – powering-up the appliances you consider vital for your relaxation or work at home. It should likewise be budget friendly, though that could take a backseat if you need to get a really powerful and robust home generator that may be used more frequently due to severe power outages in your area.
The main consideration for this is to assess the wattage requirements of all the appliances you need powered during an emergency. Then put in a 30% load safety factor. Bear in mind that motorized appliances like air conditioners, submersible pumps, refrigerators and power tools require surge current or peak power when turned on. A 2x to 3x power allowance would be great for these. Most home appliance that are vital can be powered by small suitcase generators in the 2000 to 4000 watts range. You just need to exercise some prudent power management.