sparty wrote:
Tom Horne, Electrician wrote:
I would need to know the make and model number of your main panel in
order to give you your best options.
--
Tom Horne

I have a 150 amp HOM Square D Breaker Panel.

One of the options I'm considering now is a 50 amp Transfer Switch
Panel, that goes next to your main panel. This has a Wire Bundle that
you run into your main panel. Then you pull the hot wires out of the
breakers that you want to bypass, connect them to these wires, then run
more wires from that bundle into those breakers.

By doing this, I would be slightly rewiring about 8 breakers that I
would want to run in the case of an outage, and all the rest would be
left alone. If the Transfer Switch Panel is set to normal power, then
it will allow the power coming into your house to power those 8
breakers in your main panel. If you switch it to Generator, then the 8
breakers are disconnected from the main power, and are then able to
receive power from a generator. By doing this, there is no way to
reverse power back to the main panel from a generator and vise versa.

This is a very slick and easy to install option. The only thing I
don't like, is the price tag. It's somewhere around $300 - $400.


sparty
Because you have a Square-D Homeline panel you can obtain an interlock
kit that will allow you to use a double pole breaker installed in
position 2&4 as the generator breaker. The interlock kit prevents the
2-4 breaker from being closed until you have opened the main breaker.
That kit runs about fifty dollars at an electrical supply house. The
size of the breaker that you install in position 2-4 will limit the
amount of current you can supply to your home through the connection.
Your generator must be equipped with a 120/240 volt outlet for it's
power to be safe to connect to the home in this way. No matter what
size your generator is you may want to consider installing a fifty
ampere breaker so that any generator that you would ever want to use, up
to 12000 watts, could be connected through that connection. You then
run a four wire cable from the panel back to were the inlet connector
for the generator will be installed. The cable is sized for the size of
the position 2-4 breaker. Fifty amperes is the largest size of inlet
that is commonly available. The actual limit on the amount of current
the line will carry is the sizing of the breakers on the generator. The
simplest arrangement is to match the inlet to the outlet on the
generator so that you will not need an adapter to connect the generator
cable to the inlet. It is perfectly OK to use a twenty ampere inlet on
the fifty ampere cable but if the generator isn't at least 5000 watts it
is probably not worth connecting it to your home in this way. The power
inlet you use should be weatherproof while in use. The total materials
cost of this installation is approximately $200.

Once this installation is in place you can use any load in your home up
to the ability of the generator to carry the total load. You are not
limited to the particular loads that are connected to a special panel.
--
Tom Horne

"This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous
for general use." Thomas Alva Edison