generator advice

[sunset on the dock]

I had my new house, built 5 years ago, wired such that I could plug my 5500 KW Honda generator into the system. I have never needed to use the generator until this week. Well when I tried it out this is what happened. I turned the power to the street off on the panel and turned the generator switches from off to on on the panel. Good so far. I turned on the generator knowing I have a capacity of 5500 Watts. The refrigerator ran as well as the oil heater kicking on. Still good…..But the air handlers for the heater did not work….no big deal…we primarily heat with wood. The cellar lights didn’t come on either nor certain plugs where I charge the phones and laptops. And my fish tank….the filters didn’t work…but even when I plugged them into an outlet that was powering a working floor lamp they didn’t work even though the lamp kept working.

Now it was 5 years ago that we built the house so I don’t remember. I thought the plan was that I could power anything and everything as long as I didn’t go over 5500 Watts (keeping in mind the surge when an appliance kicks on)? Or did I intentionally decide to power only certain “essentials”? I know that at the my old house I could power anything and everything…just not all at once requiring me to do a bit of arithmetic so as not to go over 5500 Watts. There must be a logical explanation. Any advice?