What Size Generator Do I Need for My Pet's Equipment? The Arithmetic, and Where It Has to Stop

Sizing a generator for pet equipment comes down to three numbers: running watts, starting (surge) watts, and a fuel runway. Total the running watts printed on the nameplates of the equipment that must run at the same time, add the single largest additional surge figure, and check your generator model’s published run time at a stated load. This page covers that arithmetic for the filter, air pump, heat source or medication fridge that keeps an animal alive.

Placement outranks all of it. A generator’s size does not change where it may run. If the only way to reach your animal’s equipment is to bring the generator closer to the house, into the garage, onto the porch, under a cover or into a shed, move the animal or the equipment, not the generator. Human life outranks animal welfare on this page and every page of this site, and carbon monoxide does not distinguish between the two. CPSC reports that more than 80 consumers die each year from CO poisoning caused by portable generators.

This is not a battery question: watt-hours and load shedding belong to our battery backup and runtime math for pet equipment, and the choice of category to our comparison of the two categories on noise and portability. This page assumes you have chosen fuel and runs in order: placement, the alarm, the arithmetic, the fuel, and the wiring question.

Placement is not a sizing variable

CPSC Publication 468, What to Know About Generators and Carbon Monoxide (CO) (CPSC468 0322), tells consumers to “operate portable generators outside only, at least 20 feet away from the house, and direct the generator’s exhaust away from the home and other buildings.” The exhaust direction is part of the same rule. A generator the full distance out with its exhaust aimed at a wall has met half of it.

The same sheet states the prohibition several ways. It warns “NEVER use inside a home or garage, EVEN IF doors and windows are open.” It says to use a generator only outside and far away from windows, doors and vents. Its don’ts list operating one inside a home, garage, basement, crawlspace, shed or on a porch, and near openings to your home including doors, windows or vents. It also says never to leave a car running in an attached garage.

CPSC does not name a carport, breezeway, space under a deck, open lean-to or window well. Our reading, labeled as ours: each is a reasoned application of the same rule, because exhaust cannot leave freely there or sits next to an opening. If you are wondering whether a spot is safe, treat the wondering as the answer and move.

CPSC states the consequence plainly: “Using a generator indoors CAN KILL YOU IN MINUTES.” Generator exhaust contains carbon monoxide, a poison you cannot see or smell.

Three federal reference points are not interchangeable

Several federal sources publish the same 20 feet against different things. Blending them produces a rule nobody wrote.

Source	What it says	Measured from
CPSC Publication 468 (CPSC468 0322)	Outside only, at least 20 feet away, exhaust directed away from the home and other buildings	the house
FEMA V-1008/December 2023, on Ready.gov	Use generators, camp stoves or charcoal grills outdoors, at least 20 feet away	building openings such as windows, doors or garages
Ready.gov, Generator Safety section (Last Updated 06/04/2026)	Generators and fuel used outdoors, at least 20 feet away	windows, doors and attached garages

A house wall and the nearest window are not in the same place. A generator can be clear of every window and still sit close to a blank wall, or far from the wall it faces while near a soffit vent around a corner. Check each instruction separately against your own house instead of averaging them. Ready.gov’s version covers the fuel as well as the machine.

The Westinghouse WGen12000DF manual (121194 Rev07 7/24/23) tells owners to use the generator only outside and far away from windows, doors and vents, as recommended by the CDC. The next sentence is the part that gets dropped: “Your specific home and/or wind conditions may require additional distance.”

When your own manual says a smaller number

The Westinghouse WGen5500 manual (version 07.23.18KD) tells the owner to verify a location at least 15 feet (4.5 m) away from any building, other equipment or combustible material. That is shorter than CPSC’s figure, from a manufacturer, for a real machine. The next bullet is the qualifier: if the generator is close to a building, it must not be near any windows, doors or vents.

The WGen12000DF manual separately says to keep at least five feet of clearance on all sides of the generator, including overhead. That is a heat and fire clearance and does not address exhaust at all.

Neither is a compromise. A shorter figure in a manual is not permission to sit closer than CPSC’s guidance, because the manual’s own next line pulls you back toward openings. A manual’s clearance is the minimum its maker will stand behind, not the wise distance beside a house full of animals that cannot leave. Where the documents disagree, the greater separation satisfies both.

The extension cord is part of the placement decision

For pet loads this is the trap: the equipment is almost always indoors and the generator must be outdoors, and the cord is where those two facts meet. The WGen12000DF manual carries a labeled asphyxiation hazard warning. Extension cords running directly into the home increase the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning through any openings. It says to always use battery-powered CO detectors that meet current UL 2034 safety standards when running the generator, and to check their batteries regularly. A second warning says that when operating with extension cords, the generator must be in an open, outdoor area, far away from occupied spaces, with exhaust pointed away.

So the cord does not buy a shorter distance. It makes the opening it passes through part of the problem, which is what CPSC’s don’t about openings describes. For a household with an aquarium, a brooder or a terrarium, cord length is a planning number to measure from a compliant outdoor position to the tank before a storm, not discover in the dark with a cord two feet short.

Three published instructions on the cord itself:

• Westinghouse, WGen12000DF: use only grounded 3-prong extension cords marked for outdoor use that are rated for the electrical load.
• PGMA, Safety Awareness: use heavy-duty outdoor-rated cords whose wattage rating exceeds the total wattage of all appliances connected to them, long enough to place the generator outdoors and far from windows, doors and vents. Check for cuts, tears and missing prongs, and follow cord safety labels including limits on cord length.
• PGMA, on backfeeding: homeowners are cautioned to use only 30-amp and 50-amp power cords for these purposes, to help prevent overheating and electrical hazards when directly powering appliances.

The rating printed on your own cord governs your own cord.

The alarm comes before the arithmetic

An animal cannot self-evacuate, open a door, or act on an alarm. The alarm exists for the human who can do all three.

CPSC Publication 468 says to install battery-operated CO alarms, or CO alarms with battery backup, outside sleeping areas and on each floor of your home, and to test alarms monthly. The next bullet lists CO poisoning symptoms in people: headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, sleepiness and confusion. If CO poisoning is suspected, CPSC says to get outside immediately, then call 911. Those are human signs. The signs in animals, and what to do about them, are on our full carbon monoxide rule set and the veterinary signs to watch for. Do not read the human list as an animal one.

Where alarms go on your walls is the alarm manufacturer’s instruction. PGMA’s safety facts say to install a battery-operated carbon monoxide alarm according to manufacturer’s instructions, and this page gives no mounting height.

For the code layer, cite the current document. As of August 11, 2026, NFPA’s code development page listed the current NFPA 72 (National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code) edition as 2025, with the next as 2028. Household CO alarm requirements now sit in NFPA 72, Chapter 29, maintained by NFPA’s Technical Committee on Single- and Multiple-Station Alarms and Household Signaling Systems. Do not cite NFPA 720 for this: NFPA’s page for it states it was withdrawn at the Annual 2018 revision cycle, with its requirements incorporated into NFPA 72 and the Council voting to approve the withdrawal on August 14, 2018.

Step one: the nameplate list

Start on your equipment, not on a generator’s box. The method below is a manufacturer’s own, from the WGen12000DF manual. Make sure the generator can supply enough continuous (running) and surge (starting) watts for the items you will power at the same time. The total power requirements (volts times amps equals watts) of all connected appliances must be considered, and appliance makers usually list rating information near the model or serial number. Then:

1. Select the items you will power at the same time.
2. Total the continuous (running) watts of those items. This is the power the generator must produce to keep them running.

The WGen5500 manual gives the same conversion: if a device is marked only with voltage and current draw, multiply the voltage by the current to get the running power demand in watts.

Read both formulas carefully. Volts times amps gives volt-amps, not watts, except for a purely resistive load such as a heater or a heat mat. For anything with a motor or compressor, the volt-amp product is an upper bound on real watts unless the plate or manual separately publishes a watt rating or power factor. Using the volt-amp figure makes your total conservative for choosing a generator, since volt-amps is never less than real watts. It is the wrong figure to carry into a watt-hour runtime budget such as the one on our battery backup and runtime math page.

The job is mechanical and rarely done before a storm. Walk to each piece of equipment, find the plate or sticker near the model and serial number, and write down the watts or the volts and amps. This page publishes no wattage figures for pet equipment on purpose: the figure that governs your sizing is the one printed on your unit. Typical draw ranges and the runtime math are on the battery page linked above.

Two cautions travel with any chart, including the one inside a generator manual. The WGen12000DF wattage chart carries its own footnote: “Wattages listed are approximate. Verify actual wattage.” And the WGen5500 manual notes that simple resistive devices such as incandescent bulbs, toasters and heaters have no extra power demand when starting, so starting equals running. A heat source that is essentially a resistive element behaves one way at startup; anything with a motor or compressor behaves another. Which category each device falls into is a question for its manufacturer.

What goes on the list, and what does not

Write the list as things that run at the same time, because that is the quantity the method asks for. A device you only run while standing next to it does not belong on the same line as one that must run all night.

One category does not go on this list at all. If anyone in the household depends on a powered medical device, it is not an item to be totalled alongside an aquarium heater. The WGen12000DF manual states as a general safety precaution: “Never use the generator to power medical support equipment.” That sentence names no species. If any of your animal’s own equipment is a prescribed medical device, such as a veterinary-prescribed oxygen concentrator or nebulizer, rather than ordinary husbandry equipment like a heat mat or a filter, the same manufacturer prohibition applies as it does to a person’s ventilator or CPAP. That question belongs to the device’s manufacturer and your veterinarian. Take it to the device manufacturer, the durable medical equipment supplier, or the prescribing clinician, and take it before hurricane season, not during an outage. Many utilities also keep a medical baseline or critical-care customer registry; ask yours. If your grid operator issues staged alerts ahead of an outage, our grid alert stages and pet power needs guide turns each stage into a sizing and charging deadline.

If a pet’s equipment is genuinely life-sustaining rather than merely important, what happens when it stops is a veterinary question, and you should ask your veterinarian in advance. This page can tell you how to total watts. It cannot tell you how long your animal has.

Step two: the surge total, and why this page publishes no multiplier

Startup draw decides whether a generator actually starts your equipment, and it is the number least likely to be printed anywhere. The WGen5500 manual explains that devices with inductive or capacitive elements such as electric motors have a momentary extra demand at startup that can be “up to seven times the running power demand or more.” Makers of such devices rarely publish it, so it is often necessary to estimate it. The figure that governs your purchase is frequently not published by the people who made the device.

That manual offers one manufacturer’s rule of thumb for motor devices: a starting power multiplier of 1.2 for small hand-held or portable devices and 3.5 for larger stationary devices, illustrated with an angle grinder and an air compressor. Read it as what it is: one maker’s estimate in one manual, offered because the real number is missing. It is not a standard and it is not this site’s guidance. This page states no multiplier of its own, because a multiplier without its hedge starts being treated as a specification, and your device may be nothing like the ones the rule was written around.

For totalling surge, the WGen12000DF manual gives the method. Surge wattage is the short burst needed to start motor-driven appliances such as a refrigerator. Because not all motors start at the same time, total surge can be estimated by adding only the item or items with the highest additional surge watts to the total rated watts from step 2. So the surge total is not the sum of every spike. It is your running total plus the single largest additional spike. The manual’s printed example runs that arithmetic.

To get a real number instead of an estimate, check the appliance’s own nameplate, where a motor-driven device may publish a locked-rotor figure, or call the appliance maker’s technical support. If you cannot, you have an estimate, and you should remember that when you buy.

Load in order, not all at once

The WGen12000DF manual says the correct and safe way to manage generator power is to add loads one at a time: start the engine with nothing connected; plug in and turn on the first load, preferably the largest; let the output stabilize (the engine runs smoothly and the device operates properly); then add the next load and repeat. The WGen5500 manual adds a notice that starting the generator with loads already applied could damage appliances being powered during the brief start-up period. Rehearse your order once, in daylight.

Step three: the answer most pet households actually get

Search results for generator sizing are dominated by whole-home standby units. For a pet-equipment load, FEMA’s power outage information sheet (FEMA V-1008/December 2023) points elsewhere: install and use your generator safely, store fuel safely, and plan to prioritize the things you will need to plug in, because you may not be able to power all appliances at one time.

That is the shape of the answer for a pet load: not a house, but a prioritized list of what runs at once, sized from nameplates, plus the largest single surge. It stops being the answer the moment a human medical device is in the household. A household with a prescribed powered device needs the manufacturer, the supplier or the clinician to answer that, not an article.

Bigger is not automatically better

Pet loads are small, and the instinct on a safety-critical purchase is to buy larger than needed. There is a published reason to check with the manufacturer first. Under Power Output and Demand, the WGen5500 manual says the generator should not be run completely unloaded for extended periods or the engine may be damaged, and recommends operating it with “at least one-third of its rated 120-Volt AC power output.”

That manual rates the unit at 5500 running watts on a combined 120/240-volt basis, while the one-third recommendation is scoped to the rated 120-volt AC output. Which figure applies on your model is a question for that manufacturer. Ask before computing a working number, then compare it against the total from step one. A pet-only list can land well under it, and a household that only runs pet equipment on a large machine may sit below the recommendation every time it starts. That is not a reason to plug in extra appliances to make a number work. It is a reason to ask the maker whether a pet-sized load is inside its recommended operating range, and one honest argument for a smaller unit or a different backup category. The comparison of the two categories is worth revisiting if this describes your household.

The rated number is a ceiling under conditions

The WGen12000DF manual states that maximum wattage and current are subject to factors including fuel BTU content, ambient temperature, altitude and engine condition. Maximum power decreases about 3.5% for each 1,000 feet above sea level and about 1% for each 10°F (6°C) above 60°F (16°C) ambient temperature. Two of those variables are the conditions a pet emergency happens in: a heat emergency is hot by definition, and a mountain household is at altitude every day. Those are Westinghouse’s figures for that model, so look for the equivalent statement in your own manual.

Dual fuel costs output too. The manual’s specification page lists running watts of 12,000 on gas and 10,800 on LPG, and peak watts of 15,000 on gas and 13,500 on LPG. If your storm plan runs on propane because propane stores better, the number you sized against may not be the number you get.

Step four: the fuel runway

A generator that covers the wattage and runs dry at hour twenty is not a plan, and for an animal on a continuous load, the runway decides the outcome. Fuel consumption is published per model, at a stated load, by that model’s maker, and it does not transfer between machines.

For the WGen5500, Westinghouse’s specification table lists a fuel tank capacity of 6.6 gallons, a run time of 20 hours at 25 percent load, and a run time of 15 hours at 50 percent load. Twenty hours is shorter than twenty-four, so on that model at that load a full day crosses at least one refuelling, and one day’s fuel is more than one tankful. That assumes a constant load at that percentage, a full tank at hour zero, the ambient temperature and altitude the rating assumed, and an engine in the condition the rating assumed. Change any of them and the number moves. It is arithmetic this page performs on two published figures, not a rate Westinghouse publishes, and it applies to that model only.

Twenty-five percent of a unit rated at 5500 running watts is one specific load, and almost certainly not the total your own list produced, so the published twenty hours is not a runtime to plan against until you have compared it to what you will actually run. Whether a lighter load extends run time on your unit, and by how much, is for your manufacturer, and it runs into the one-third recommendation above.

Not every manual publishes a runway. The WGen12000DF manual lists a 10.5 gallon tank and no run time figure. If yours is like that, you have no published runway; say so to yourself rather than estimate one.

The WGen12000DF manual also describes a low idle mode that lowers engine RPM when loads are off to reduce fuel use, noise and wear. It restricts it in a notice: do not use Low Idle when powering sensitive electronics or large surge loads, such as an air conditioner, electric pump or refrigerator, or when connected to a home transfer switch. An aquarium pump and a medication fridge are on that list by category. Read your own manual’s version before relying on the feature to stretch a tank.

Refuelling has no safe shortcut

You will be refuelling in the dark, probably in weather, probably tired, with an animal on your mind. Every published instruction points the same way.

• PGMA: before refuelling, turn the generator off and let it cool for at least two minutes before removing the fuel cap. Gasoline spilled on hot engine parts could ignite. “Never refuel a running portable generator.”
• Ready.gov: let the generator cool before refuelling, because fuel spilled on hot engine parts can ignite.
• Westinghouse WGen5500: never refuel while the engine is running; turn it off and let it cool. It is not safe to add gasoline or oil while the engine and muffler are hot.
• Westinghouse WGen12000DF: cool for two minutes before adding gasoline or oil. Never remove the fuel cap while running. Remove it slowly to release pressure and keep fuel from escaping, and tighten it securely afterward.

Design for the consequence rather than discovering it: the equipment goes off during refuelling, every time. If your animal’s load cannot tolerate a gap, the answer is a second power source for that gap, planned in advance, not a faster refuel.

The animal near the machine

Everything above protects the house and its people from exhaust. None of it addresses an animal standing next to the machine, and a yard is where a loose dog or cat goes when the house is dark and someone is outside working on a generator.

The five-foot clearance is a heat and fire clearance, not a carbon monoxide rule. PGMA warns that gasoline spilled on hot engine parts could ignite, and Westinghouse warns against adding fuel while the engine and muffler are hot. None of those sentences was written with a dog or cat in mind, and none of the sources cited here connects the machine’s heat and fuel hazards to an animal in the yard.

What follows is this page’s own reasoning, not a published protocol: a muffler and exhaust outlet stay hot well after the engine cools, and an animal cannot read a warning label or judge a hot surface. Keep pets indoors, or leashed and held well outside the generator’s five-foot clearance, whenever the machine is running or has recently run. Keep them clear of the exhaust outlet and muffler specifically. Keep fuel containers closed and out of reach during and after refuelling, since a spilled or open container near a hot engine is the hazard PGMA describes, and an animal that knocks one over adds to it.

Where the fuel may live

PGMA states: “Never store fuel for your generator inside the home.” Gasoline, propane, kerosene and other flammable liquids should be stored outside of living areas in properly labeled, non-glass safety containers, and not near a fuel-burning appliance such as a natural gas water heater in a garage. That last point rules out the place most households would default to: an attached garage with a gas water heater is specifically named.

How much fuel you may keep, in what containers and where, is set by NFPA 30, the Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code, and the fire code your jurisdiction has adopted. NFPA describes NFPA 30 as providing safeguards to reduce the hazards of storing, handling and using flammable and combustible liquids, and notes it is enforceable under OSHA and many state and local regulations. This page publishes no quantity, because the one that applies to you is set by your local fire code. Your fire department’s fire prevention office will answer by phone, and February is a better time to call than September.

The WGen12000DF manual adds: store fuel in a container approved for gasoline, and do not store gas or an LPG/propane tank near furnaces, water heaters or other appliances that produce heat or have automatic ignitions.

Rain and standing water: do not improvise

Storms are wet, and this is where people invent things. PGMA’s Safety Awareness page says that if you must use a generator when it is wet outside, protect it from moisture as the owner’s manual describes, to help avoid shock and electrocution, “but do so without operating the generator indoors or near openings to any building that can be occupied.” The clause after the comma is the point: it fences the fix so a wet-weather answer cannot become an indoor or near-opening placement. PGMA adds to operate the generator on a dry surface where water cannot reach, puddle or drain under it, and to dry your hands before touching it.

Your manual may go further. The WGen5500 manual has a DANGER block: never use the generator in a location that is wet or damp, and never expose it to rain, snow, water spray or standing water while in use, since moisture or ice can cause a short circuit or other malfunction. Elsewhere it says never to operate the generator outdoors during rain, snow or any weather that could lead to moisture collecting on, in or around it. Ready.gov adds that touching a wet generator or devices connected to one can cause electrical shock.

Your manual is the authority on whether and how your unit may run in wet weather, and a manual that says never means never. This page publishes no do-it-yourself weather protection, because a homemade cover that traps exhaust turns a shock problem into a carbon monoxide problem. No canopy, tent, cover or enclosure makes a prohibited location acceptable; CPSC does not endorse any of them, and its outside-only instruction has no exception for a covered generator.

Connecting to the house

Many people searching “what size generator” arrive at the wiring question, and this is where the page stops describing and starts routing.

PGMA’s September 12, 2025 release, The Dangers of ‘Backfeeding’: Never plug a generator into an outlet, describes the misconception that a generator plugged into an outlet will power a property or certain appliances without extension cords. In fact, PGMA says, backfeeding is extremely dangerous and presents an electrocution risk to utility workers and neighbors served by the same utility transformer. It also bypasses some built-in household circuit protection and can cause short circuits and overloads that lead to electrical fires, fluctuating or excessive voltage that can damage appliances and electronics, and damage to a property’s wiring and breaker panel.

The route PGMA names is a transfer switch or interlock device, installed by a qualified electrician who professionally modifies the circuit breakers. A transfer switch is a connection point that prevents a generator from feeding electricity back into the power lines. PGMA’s release then says: “These are the only safe ways to use a portable generator to power an entire residence.”

Transfer switch. Interlock device. Installed by a qualified electrician. That is all this page will say about connecting a generator to house wiring. There is no procedure, no sequence, and no description of how the unsafe method works, even as a warning. The people most at risk from that method are utility line workers nowhere near your house.

Manufacturers say the same. Westinghouse, WGen12000DF: when the generator supplies a building wiring system it must be installed by a qualified electrician and connected to a transfer switch as a separately derived system in accordance with NFPA 70, the National Electrical Code. A hazard block adds that the connection must isolate generator power from utility power and comply with all applicable laws and electrical codes. The WGen5500 manual likewise says a licensed electrician should connect the generator to the utility circuit, in strict compliance with national and local codes.

As of August 11, 2026, NFPA’s code development page listed the current NEC (NFPA 70) edition as 2026. Its generator and optional-standby articles are Article 445, Generators, and Article 702, Optional Standby Systems. NFPA publishes the code text at no cost through its Free Access viewer (a free NFPA account is required), and a training publisher’s free excerpt from the 2020 edition reproduces both article headings. For your particular house, a licensed electrician and your local authority having jurisdiction decide, and their answer outranks this page.

When nobody is home with the animals

A permanently installed generator with an automatic transfer switch starts itself. That is why people buy it, and it is useful when an outage begins while you are at work. It is also the configuration where nobody is present to notice a problem.

CPSC staff studied this class of machine. A staff report dated June 3, 2025 examined carbon monoxide from stationary generators after Hurricane Ida, and staff wrote to the chair of the NFPA 37 technical committee on July 3, 2025 summarizing the findings. The letter states: “At least 105 homes had indoor CO exposures caused by stationary generators.” It adds that “85 homes had their CO alarm activate; 20 homes did not mention the presence of a CO alarm or a CO alarm activation,” and that 12 homes had one or more residents with CO poisoning symptoms.

Read in order, the conclusion assembles itself. Indoor CO exposures from automatic, permanently installed generators are documented, and in most documented cases what raised the alarm was an alarm. An animal alone in the house cannot do what those alarms prompted people to do. Automatic starting does not remove the need for a working CO alarm, or for a person to check on the house.

The letter also explains why a clearance you were quoted was never designed for this. Manufacturers’ installation instructions rely on clearances in NFPA 37, which addresses the fire hazard these products pose to nearby structures, and staff wrote that “there is no standard or code that addresses the CO hazard.” NFPA describes NFPA 37 as criteria for minimizing fire hazards from stationary combustion engines and gas turbines, including those used for emergency generators. A fire clearance is not a carbon monoxide clearance.

About the 25-foot number you may have seen

This figure has circulated since mid-2025 and is routinely quoted out of scope. CPSC staff’s July 3, 2025 letter recommends that the NFPA 37 technical committee increase the separation distance between the stationary generator and openings into structures from the current 5 feet to at least 25 feet.

Four qualifiers travel with it. It concerns stationary generators, not portable ones. It is a recommendation to a technical committee, not an adopted requirement. It is measured from openings into structures, not from the house. And the letter’s own footnote says the letter and report were prepared by CPSC staff and “have not been reviewed or approved by, and may not necessarily reflect the views of, the Commission.”

So 25 feet is not a rule, it is not about your portable generator, and it is not CPSC’s official position. It is a good question for your installer: if you have a standby unit, ask whether its placement was set by a fire clearance or a carbon monoxide clearance, and name this letter when you ask.

If you are buying, ask for the shut-off by name

CPSC Publication 468 says to ask retailers for a portable generator with a safety feature that shuts off automatically when high CO concentrations are present, and notes that some models with CO shut-off also have reduced emissions. Two standards sit behind it. ANSI/PGMA G300-2023 is the portable generator safety and performance standard that includes CO shut-off technology; PGMA says it “received ANSI approval on December 19, 2023” and applies “for generators manufactured on or after January 1, 2025.” UL 2201, Carbon Monoxide (CO) Emission Rate of Portable Generators, Edition 2, is dated January 9, 2018 with a last revision of February 24, 2023, per UL Standards’ catalogue listing.

And the thing that must be said in the same breath, because it is the misreading that kills people: CPSC recommends the feature on the same sheet where it says never to use a generator inside a home or garage even if doors and windows are open. The shut-off is a backstop for a mistake, not a permission. It does not make a garage, porch, shed or spot near a window acceptable.

What this page does not know

No sizing guidance for pet equipment. The CPSC, FEMA and Ready.gov, NFPA and PGMA documents cited here cover generator safety, and the generator manuals cover a sizing method. None addresses pet equipment specifically. Ready.gov mentions pets in the generator context only in a carbon monoxide line, which says CO is a colorless, odorless gas that “can kill you, your family and pets.”

No multiplier or burn rate of our own. The only multipliers and fuel figures here belong to Westinghouse’s manuals for the models named. Your device’s real numbers are on its nameplate or in your manual.

How long your animal has without its equipment. That is a veterinary question about a specific animal with a specific condition, and it determines how much redundancy you need. Ask your veterinarian before a season starts and write the answer down where your generator plan lives.

Four places to route the rest: your veterinarian for any animal threshold, any equipment your animal depends on, and what to do when it stops. A licensed electrician and your local authority having jurisdiction for anything that touches house wiring. Your local fire department’s fire prevention office for how much fuel you may store and where. The manufacturer of the generator, the alarm, and every piece of equipment on your list, for every wattage, clearance, runtime and installation figure.

Worksheet to fill in before the storm

• Walk the house and write down, for each piece of pet equipment, the watts or the volts and amps printed near the model or serial number. Note whether the device contains a motor or compressor.
• Ask each maker for the starting draw of anything with a motor, and record whether you got a real figure or an estimate.
• List the items that must run at the same time, total their running watts, then add the single largest additional starting figure.
• Keep any powered human medical device off this worksheet entirely, and get that answer from the device manufacturer, the equipment supplier, or the prescribing clinician. Westinghouse’s prohibition names no species: if any of your animal’s own equipment is a prescribed medical device rather than husbandry equipment, take it off this worksheet too and ask its manufacturer and your veterinarian.
• Confirm with the generator’s maker that a pet-sized load is inside its recommended operating range, and find your model’s published run time and the load it is stated at.
• Measure, in daylight, the actual distance from a compliant outdoor generator position to the equipment, and buy an outdoor-rated cord long enough for that distance.
• Plan the gap: the equipment stops while you refuel, every time. Decide in advance what covers it.
• Keep pets indoors, or leashed and outside the generator’s own five-foot clearance, whenever it is running or recently was. Keep them clear of the exhaust outlet and muffler, and keep fuel containers closed and out of reach during and after refuelling.
• Call your fire department’s fire prevention office about how much fuel you may store, in what containers, and where.
• Install CO alarms per CPSC’s instruction and the alarm maker’s directions, and test them monthly.
• If you have a permanently installed generator, ask your installer whether placement was set by a fire clearance or a carbon monoxide clearance.
• Rehearse the sequential load-up once, in daylight.

Where to go next

This page is the fuel-generator spoke of our pets and power outages hub.

If you are still choosing a category. Our comparison of the two categories on noise and portability is the decision before this one. Our battery backup and runtime math for pet equipment carries the watt-hour side, a different quantity from the running watts here.

If carbon monoxide is what you came for. Our full carbon monoxide rule set and the veterinary signs to watch for covers what CO does to animals and what to do if you suspect exposure. That page owns the medical half; this one owns the arithmetic.

If you know what you are powering but not for how long. Our aquarium and reptile guide to an outage and our pet medication refrigeration guide cover the two loads that most often turn an inconvenience into an emergency.

Then walk the house this week with a pen and write the numbers off the labels.