2 Answers

5500 is equal to  6,875 Watts of electricity. You need to find out what wattage is required for the items you will be hooking up to the generator. You should be able to run a fridge, stove, coffee maker, furnace and lights in another room on your 5500. That's the size of my generator and those are what I power off the generator. Your generator can not run the whole house so be selective over what you hook up to it. 

Check you Utility bill to discover how many KWH you use in a month.  One KWH is the nunber of Watts you use in one hour

Then do the calculation to determine what total portion of you homes hourly consumption, that your generator has the ability to supply .

You can then determine which eclectic devices can be operated, at any one time.

Watts are the amount an electrical appliance consumes in one hour and is listed on the device.

IE A 100 Watt light bulb will use one KWH, in one hour