generator hock up

I have been reading all the threads about house generator hook ups back feeding and what not. I keep hearing of transfer switch. I have not heard mention the type I have . I bought at the supply house from Square D brand. It was simple to hook up and less then a $100 bucks and I can pick and use any breaker in my house or put the shop on line if need be.All it is is a slide plate that slides and let the main breaker be on or not slide the other way and it allows you to lock out main breaker and turn on breaker for gen set. You can only operate one or the other never both. I have the correct outlet for the nema plug and the bottom of the panel for the super heavy cord going to plug in to the gen set.we are able to run the hole house except oven and dryer. We turn off all breakers in the box and bring on one at a time what we need till all things are on except the oven and dryer. With this set up I can power the shop from the house sub feed going to the shop for an emergency repair or something. Does any body else use this type of set up. My NJ / Pa licensed Electrician friend told me the proper way to hook it all up and picked up all the parts I needed from the supply house I would think what he told meets code. It took me less then 4 hours to do the work although I am very handy I do not do this type of work all the time.

Northeast puller1

Sounds great, its the "cheaper simpler" slider lockout method I mentioned below. With the proper 4 wire hookup (unlike the 3 wire welder receptacles guys tried to use),,,,,,,Single point grounding,,,,,,,,,No mix n match Grounds and Neutrals,,,,,,,A floating Neutral Genset

YOURE GOOD TO GO N SAFE EVEN

Congratulations

John T

Sorry gentleman I was just catching up on today's advents and just saw the thread below and they are talking about the slide transfer switch like mine sorry for the double post on this subject.

Northeast puller1

Not at all - you stated it much better than I did! I was searching for the right word, didn't do that good of a job...

--->Paul

That's the route I went. As long as you have four prongs on the genny and your hookup, you couldn't ask for a more flexible arrangement. Yeah, its not compatible with the automatic systems, but it's hard to beat for cost and versatility.

As you said, the upside is that I can pick and choose any circuit on the panel to run or not, instead of the limnited number of circuits on the automatic switches. I've got a coupla ladies here that aren't up on the limits of a 15/30kw generator and have no notion of the concept of roughing it (which is why I have the big generator). We've got 220 to the well that stays on and I'll generally leave the water heater going. What I will usually do, before I throw the mains and breakers to make the connection to the generator is throw the breakers for the dryer and the range off, and will turn off the water heater if the girls have a need for either one of them.

The beauty of simplicity.

Hey Northeast Puller 1! I like this idea/arrangement. Can you, perhaps, get me the model number or something off this Square D transfer switch? I would LOVE to do something like this and perhaps any pictures you can share would be appreciated as well.

Thanks!

Check these folks and see if they make one for your box. They vary in design from box to box.
InterlockKit

check out these folks
Gen Tran

61410 ScottyHOMEy link covers it well if you need further info I can take pictures and look in my files for part numbers if need be.

Northeast puller 1

John T or Sparkey,

While we're hot on the topic, in my post below I wrote that I had the meter box slide switch arrangement. The electrician that wired my house installed A 4 prong outlet below the box.
Well, I have not made up the cord to go to my pto generater yet. I wanted to make my cord so that it would plug into the three prong welder outlet on the gen. How can I wire it so it will be correct? I will never use over the 50 amps at one time from the welder outlet and wanted to avoid using the single taps. I will be out tonight and not able to reply back.

Thanks,

Mark

For anybody that has a small(under 10,000)gen.,some elect.cos.sell a unit called GenerLink that they will install in back of your Meter and is auto.when you plug your gen.in. generlink.com Look it up.

While the interlock is not a foolproof as a true generator transfer switch, it is far better than nothing, where a moments brain fade could make you connect or forget to disconnect the main breaker causing a backfeed.

The only problem I have with the interlock is that they are attached to the panel cover and can be defeated by removing that cover.

Hey there Mark, Ive read enough of your posts that Im confident youre pretty good in this electrical stuff soooooooooooo have you read all my long winded posts below lol????? Ive told this Neutral/Ground/3 versus 4 wire stuff a hundred times lol I bet youre all tired of it by now

To hook it up properly for a 120/240 volt backfeed or a 2 pole (L1 L2 no Neutral) transfer YOU NEED A 4 (NOT 3) POLE PLUG/CORD/RECEPTACLE

Thats 2 Hots L1 L2,,,,,,1 Neutral,,,,,,,1 Equipment Ground Conductor

DO NOT use the safety/bare/green/Equipment Ground Conductor as the Neutral. Thats what happens when you try to use a 3 pole grounding receptacle made for a straight 240 welder that dont have any neutral grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

At the panel alllllllll the Neutrals (from genset and utilitys and X fer switch if you used one) are joined at one point,,,,,,the bare/green Equipment Ground Conductor goes out to the case/frame of the genset,,,,,,,,at the genset UNBOND any Neutral to case/frame connection...

Thas bout as simple n straight as I can make it for ya WITHOUT trying to explain the science of it all, I give up on that

Take care there Mark best wishes n Merry Christmas

John T

I used the Square D kit for mine. I actually found mine at Lowes for about $40. I also wired my inlet box through to my outdoor patio so the generator can sit there under the porch roof under some cover and just hum away.

Another thing to consider is to run a wire from your generator chassis ground to a ground rod.
Untitled URL Link

That (the brain fade factor) to me, along with having all my circuits available to me, is the beauty of the interlock.

As far as defeating it, there'll be holy old he11 to pay around here if I ever find anybody taking the cover off the panel. My second thought on that is, why would you? If someone were to buy the house and not have the right plug on their generator cord, they might plug into something else and backfeed, but they would or could do that whether the interlock was there or not. You don't need to pull the cover off the panel to defeat it.

I got lucky in setting mine up. The house panel is on an outside wall. The other side of that wall is under a covered porch so it was a short run of cable and no trouble to hook up, which was a blessing in material and labor costs. Biggest expense was 15' of 60A 3+1-wire cable with the appropriate plugs. (OUCH!!) That and the genny is undercover when running, as am I at hookup and refueling times.

One thing I did do, as the setup faces the road and theft can be a problem out here in the country, is run a cable from the light hook on the gen-set. To tie it down, I cutout the wall to the adjacent utility room and mounted a single-door weatherproof cover-plate for a duplex outlet, but left out the box and outlet. Just inside the utility room, I drilled two holes in the floor and epoxied a hoop of rebar extending an inch or so deeper than the slab into the holes, and lock the other end of the cable to that. When not in use, the generator is out of sight in the garage.