I'm looking at getting a generator, only a small one. Does anyone have any experience of Wolf Generators? It is rated at 2.2kw with a max of 2.75kw. I plan to use a 1.5kW vacuum cleaner with it. I have read that because the vacuum cleaner has a motor that has an inductive load to be safe I should multiply the actual load by 3 and therefore I should buy a generator rated at 4.5kW. A friend of mine is a professional car valet he just uses a 2.2kw Honda generator with his 1.5kW vacuum cleaner without any problem. The thing is that a 4.5kW generator costs quite a bit more than a 2.2kW What do you think?
Quite honestly I have no idea, however I do know that generators will auto shut down the output if you overload it, so I would say, borrow your mates 2.2kw one and see if your cleaner causes it to shut off, if it doesn't you "should" be ok. The only issue I see is that Honda generators are generally under rated where as cheaper ones tend to be over rated. I have a Kipor genny and its very good for what I need.
The problem is the start up inrush current of the Vacuums motor. Once running it should be no problem but it's the 'getting the motor from standstill to 50% speed' which will overload a smaller Genny
