wiring a generator to a house

binks85

New Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2005
Location
Cary
i have an 8000 watt B&S generator and want to wire it to my circuit breaker. has anyone done this or have a diagram to show how its done?

thanks
randy
 
The "wiring a hot tub" thread is a bit more debatable... but THIS to me definitely sounds like an application for a licensed electrician/installer...
 
I had both my hot tub and my generator hard wired in by a pro. that being said I backfed my generator in from a wall outlet for yrs before it was hardwired.
The electrician put a lead to plug into in the circuit box with its own breaker. just be sure to remember to turn off your main when running the generator.
 
Just get you a heavy drop cord and put two male ends on it. When the power goes out "kick your main breaker" then just plug it in to any outlet in the house. Make Sure You Kick The Main Breaker so that it does not feed back to transformer and get a line worker hurt. I know several people who do this.
 
Mike J said:
Just get you a heavy drop cord and put two male ends on it. When the power goes out "kick your main breaker" then just plug it in to any outlet in the house. Make Sure You Kick The Main Breaker so that it does not feed back to transformer and get a line worker hurt. I know several people who do this.
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One thing to remember is it will only feed the side of the panel the outlet is wired to. You would need to add a breaker to the other side and run a jumper wire. Also you must remember to ALWAYS turn off the main first before you start up the generator. Also when power is restored you MUST also turn off the jump breaker before turning the main breaker back on. All this said it is best to wire it in by a pro with the proper switching.
 
Rox&Mud said:
One thing to remember is it will only feed the side of the panel the outlet is wired to. You would need to add a breaker to the other side and run a jumper wire. Also you must remember to ALWAYS turn off the main first before you start up the generator. Also when power is restored you MUST also turn off the jump breaker before turning the main breaker back on. All this said it is best to wire it in by a pro with the proper switching.
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I plug up from my Gen's 220 outlet to 220 wall outlet. That services both sides of the box.

And X2 on the turn off main breaker first! Saftey issues aside, your generator will try to power the entire line...eg...all yer neighbors! LOL!

A good idea when wired professionally, they can put an automatic switch that isolates your power from the grid.:rolleyes:
 
ol'Jeeps said:
I plug up from my Gen's 220 outlet to 220 wall outlet. That services both sides of the box.

And X2 on the turn off main breaker first! Saftey issues aside, your generator will try to power the entire line...eg...all yer neighbors! LOL!
Click to expand...

x2
 
Oh boy..


For those that don't know I have 2 full time jobs.
1) I am a sales and design Engineer for Cummins Power Generation
2) I own and run an Electrical company.

Grrrrr.... at some of the advice.
A breaker is not designed to be back fed into. It will afford ZERO protection should a surge or short occur.

Having said that, has it been done?
Yes.
Often?
Yes
Has it burned down houses?
Yes.
How frequently?
Not very.
Will your home owners insurance cover your house if it does?
No.

If you MUST do it yourself, hook a set of heavy gauge jumper cable leads to you output, and if needed pull your meter and clamp to the house side of the bus. Then when power is restored put your meter back in. You can either call the power company and tell them what you did and they may not charge you the $45 reseal fee, or you could just forget it. With the new RF read meters they will likely not see it for at least a year. (annual inspection)

But for $5-700 you could have a manual transfer switch installed by a professional or for $1-1.5k you could have an automatic transfer switch installed by a professional. (both prices include cost of switch)

I will not comment on the product purchased, except to say good luck.
 
Im sure you could find some reason why any solution has its pitfalls. Everything is dangerous in the hands of the unwise!

I would have to think any generator built since...nineteen-o-shit would have its own breaker. If not, install a breaker in line to the outlet.

That being said, my advice on using the plugin method would be, don't run a huge generator this way! Keeping in mind that the outlet I use is a 4 wire, (one grounds the generator), 50 amp circuit, don't try to run everything in the house. Aside from the the breaker not doing anything, the wiring wont stand a 100 amp load very long either, I would suspect. This system is emergency power only.

Doing the math, and allowing some safety margin, I can run my heat pump, refrigerator, a couple of lights, and a television. When I need water, I turn off the heat pump and run the well pump, then switch em back again. I have always checked the wires for heat, (I was leery of doing this myself, for a long time) and have never even found the slightest bit of warmth in the wiring. (BTW...one thing that noticeably draws the generator down? A 110v hair dryer! BIG amp draw!)

If you want a full power generating system, so life can go on without any inconvenience, by all means get a big enuff generator, and have it professionally installed, with all the automatic toys!!
 
And if a shunt in the alt. end fails and starts escalating output wattage?

A small gen in failure can triple in wattage output for 2-3 minutes before it burns up. Your home will also when it does.

I mean you are right it works fine, most of the time.

So does towing with an S10 or Ricky's war wagon, and I think I remember your thoughts on those.

not knocking you Scott, you've always seemed like a great guy just pointing out that it isn't safe and there are things to consider.

BTW its not about no inconvenience, its about the load you can not control. Electrical problems are escalatory not destructive. In other words the problem breeds problems. Your wire has never gotten hot. But when/if it does, it has then lost some of its current carrying capacity, which in turn will cause more heat, which will further degrade its capability.

To me it is EXACTLY like towing a toy, if you cant do it right, dont do it at all.
 
Yea. I really shouldnt, in any way, minimize the fact that doing these things this way does present an elevated risk.

I reckon I have been lucky or diligent, or a bit of both, that I haven't experienced the worst that can happen! (I'm sure I have dodged many bullets in my life! LOL) Understanding the risks and understanding and respecting what can go wrong, taking steps, and being constantly aware can minimize those risks.

Kinda like off-roading, eh?!:rolleyes:
 
::beer::

BTW, Im not trying to be a hard azz either,or make money. If ANYONE gets into something like this and has questions, troublees feel free to call/pm me. ANy help I can offer over the net/phone is of course free
 
Prob a good deal to have access to someone who does this stuff for a livin!

Us shadetree guys usually are not a big hazard to others until we offer advice on how we did something and got away with it!

:rolleyes:
 
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