Who runs it
PowerOutageKit is written and maintained by Lee Palmer, an independent publisher based in Canada. It is a one-person project. There is no sales team, and no manufacturer or retailer has any say over what appears here.
The site began as a set of planning notes for winter outages: how big a battery a fridge and freezer really need, whether a small generator could run a furnace, and how much fuel to keep. Those notes became the calculators.
What the site is for
Backup power is sold by the watt and the watt-hour, and the two are easy to confuse. The aim here is to help you work out your own numbers before you spend money, so that what you buy fits the job.
How the calculators work
- Every calculator runs entirely in your browser. The numbers you type are not sent to a server or stored.
- Each tool page shows its formula and a worked example, so you can check the result by hand.
- The appliance wattages offered as starting values are examples. They are labelled as examples, and every one can be replaced with your own reading.
- Results are rounded up, because an undersized battery or generator is the more costly mistake.
How the guides are written
- Safety guidance comes from government and public-safety sources in the United States and Canada, and each guide links to the sources it relies on.
- Figures in tables are calculated from the formulas shown, not taken from marketing material.
- Where practice differs between the two countries, both are given. Measurements appear in both imperial and metric units.
- Each page carries the month it was last reviewed.
What the site does not do
PowerOutageKit does not test or rank products, and it does not give electrical installation advice. Connecting a generator to a home's wiring is a job for a licensed electrician. The calculators give planning estimates, not guarantees.
How the site is funded
The site is free to use. It is supported by advertising and by affiliate links on the gear page. Neither affects the calculators or the guides: the formulas are the same whatever you go on to buy, and guides do not recommend specific products. The affiliate disclosure explains this in full.
Corrections
If you find an error, an out-of-date figure or a broken link, please write to [email protected]. Corrections are checked against the original source and fixed promptly.