cshenk wrote:
"Jim Redelfs" wrote
"cshenk" wrote:

slight confusion on our end is one of the reasons
we havent gotten one yet.
A portable generator can be very handy but, unless used properly, quite
deadly.

Yes, and we dont need one bad enough to be risky with it.

If you believe that running extension cords for those (hopefully) rare
occasions when the power is out for a long time, you should consider
running the generator OUTSIDE and passing the cords through the window
in your garage. Carbon monoxide can build up in an enclosed space, even

Understood. I gave too little information. In my area, hurricanes are the
main outage thing. Summer occurance, lots of wind and rain. I dont think
it will work outside in conditions like that. If it's not too bad though,
the alternate spot if the back screened porch (13x42ft) up on bricks or
cinderblocks to make sure it stays dry and only after the rain part has
passed by.

The garage is not airtight. It would be very easy to also lift the door 6
inches. In fact, the main problem with the garage is in winter as it isnt
airtight so we have a heating problem in a serious cold snap and have to use
pipe heaters.

This alone tells me that you are going to poison yourself with CO. If
you're even partially heating the garage except in a serious cold snap,
you do NOT have an air tight seal between the house and the garage, no
matter how well you can ventilate the garage.

Also, if you get an "ultra-quiet" generator, you will loose much of that
value running the thing in an "enclosed" space, ventilated properly or

Not worried about ultra quiet. Neighbors have these and at the time when
the power is out, we dont mind one anothers generator noise.

Injuring or killing someone using a suicide cord (exposed prongs on BOTH
ends), particularly technicians working on the high voltage lines away
from your house, may be rare, but it has - and does - happen.

Not planning to do more than direct connect it to a few appliances.

Unless you're going to run 12ga. or heavier extension cord throughout
the house and multiple open windows to run them out to the generator,
you are just going to burn up the appliances AND the generator.

One hopes that a protracted outage is rare enough that the stringing of
cords isn't too big of a hassle for the occasion. In such instances,
run the cord to the freezer and "run it up" to operating temperature,
then do the same with the refrigerator.

Nope, though we did once go a week. No plan to run the fridge too off it.
We'll move whats freezable to the chest freezer and the rest can go bye-bye
if it's that long.

If the outage is in the heating season, the process is a bit more
complicated, requiring the "hinking" of a plug onto the furnace supply

Only once did that happen in 12 years and we used the fireplace. I'd be
more worried about frozen pipes in a case like that.

Thanks for the feedback!



The only way to do this properly is to install a transfer switch, either
designed for inside your existing panel, or as an add on to the panel.
The feed into the transfer switch has a special housing for outside,
with a built in male connector. Because the transfer switch prevents
that housing from being connected to the mains, it is not unsafe for
that connector to be male. The cable that connects it to the generator
is a normal male to female cable.

As so many others have warned you, if you don't do it correctly and
someone gets hurt OR there is property damage caused by your generator,
you will be hanging out to dry. Your insurance company will say screw
you, and the law will probably be looking to lock you up.