A 2,000 sq ft home with central AC, an electric water heater and typical major appliances generally needs somewhere in the 10,000-17,000 watt range to run everything at once — though most homeowners size for essential circuits rather than every outlet, which brings that number down significantly.
Two paths at this home size
A permanently installed standby generator (Generac, Kohler, Cummins — sized by a licensed electrician against your actual panel) is the way to cover the entire house automatically, including central AC. A large portable generator covering a curated essential-circuits list via a transfer switch is the cheaper, more common path for most 2,000 sq ft homes, and is what our current lineup covers.
Champion 11,000W and DuroMax XP15000HXT: large portable options
Both land in the 9,000-12,000W continuous range — enough to cover a well pump, fridge, several circuits of lights, a furnace blower and a window AC unit or two simultaneously, which covers most of what a 2,000 sq ft home needs during an outage without the cost or permitting of a full standby installation.
When to go standby instead
If your home has central AC you want to keep running fully, an electric water heater, or you simply want the generator to start automatically with no manual involvement, a licensed electrician's load calculation for an installed standby system is the right next step — see our generator sizing guide for how that calculation works, and budget accordingly using our installation cost guide.