Quote:
Originally Posted by B-O-B'03
I have a 50 amp RV outlet on the driveway and made up a 30 <> 50 amp cable that connects to both legs. Not the best setup and if done incorrectly very dangerous, but it was below freezing out (low was -2) and had dropped down to 50 in the house over night.
Before doing it again I would install an interlock device to ensure the main is off, before you can engage the 50 amp breaker. It is just me and the DW at home and I doubt she would drag the generator out of the shed and attempt to hook it up, but better safe than not.
As it was, I flipped off the main and all 220 volt breakers, plugged the cable into the RV outlet and the generator, started it up and flipped the 50 amp breaker on. That gave us power on both legs of the panel and with judicious management we were able to keep things going and run one, gas, furnace at a time. I am glad we had converted most of the lighting in the house to LED.
The DW thinks we should invest in a whole house system now, having 220 available means we can run the pool pump and keep all that from freezing, instead of wrapping it all in blankets with a 150 shop light under them and also the AC system in the summer if we have an outage. I priced a few out and for the load we have a system that will run "everything" is really expensive and I am not sure we would ever get our moneys worth out of it, especially at our age.
Our neighbors with pools lost thousands of dollars worth of pumps, heaters, filters, chlorinators, and piping, some also had flooding in the home from frozen pipes.
-Brian
|
Unless done properly backfeeding can be a deathtrap for a utility lineman. When we had the recent storms we were without power for several days. I've not had, nor had the need for, a generator for decades but got one so I wouldn't lose what was in 1 freezer and 3 fridge/freezers. When the power guys finally got there they said they heard the generator and weren't going to work on it until they went up and looked over the fence and saw I was just running extension cords to the appliances vs connecting to the breaker panel - which I wouldn't do.
As far as whole house generators; when the unprecedented "big freeze" hit TX this winter and the power grid went stupid I was in FL and lost contact with my security system and everything else. Depending on a neighbor who recently lost her husband seemed really lame so determined I would install a whole house gen when I returned. Made an appt. with our electrical contractor to meet me as soon as I returned as I figured they would be really backed up with requests....and they were, but....
I had pretty much guestimated the cost and was right on the money and wanted it done right away until we did a walk through. As we surveyed the property the contractor informed me of all the issues with clearances, distances and little "no no's" when doing the installation. With all the walks, flower beds, sprinkler systems etc. we ended up having to put the gen halfway in the yard digging up sprinkler lines etc., placing it in one area and digging up the sprinklers then routing under walks AND THEN placing a 150gal.? LP tank right next to the gate going to the front yard or last; placing the gen right square in the middle of BBQ central and all my cookers - blasphemous as this is sacred ground as I told him. DW was with me and she was thumbs down on everything but BBQ central and that area was a no go for me. So now I have a little generator and will probably just endure any future event praying nothing bad happens, and if it does promptly begin kicking myself in the butt for being so stupid.
All that to point out that there might be other considerations to putting in that whole house gen set other than cost.