On 12/13/2013 01:14 PM, Frank wrote:
On 12/12/2013 4:12 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
I recently hooked my generator into the main box, with a lock-out
device of course. If the power goes out, I'll turn off the main switch
to the street manually and flip to generator power.

The problem is how to know when the street power is back on, other
than looking down the street to see if the neighbors have lights on
again. When I just ran extension cords from the generator to the well,
refrigerators, etc., during an outage, when the power started up again
various lights would light up around the house as they had been on and
were still street-connected. Now, everything is disconnected from the
street.

It would be nice if there were some sort of induction device I could
clamp on the main line coming in from the street which would light up
an LED if there were power in the line, but if there's no current
actually flowing I don't see how it would pick up the potential
voltage in the line. Is there such a thing available or will I have to
invent one?

Paul


My transfer box only isolates and works on certain circuits.
When power is restored the unisolated circuits come back on.

Indeed, and if the OP had that kind of setup, with certain selected
circuits being run from a generator sub-panel, it would be trivial to
put a pair of lights on the load side of a two pole breaker in the main
panel. My understanding of what the OP had was only one panel, with a
main breaker that was connected to the service, and a separate breaker
"backfeeding" the panel from the generator, with an interlock device so
that only one of the two (main breaker and generator breaker) could be
in the "on" position at any time. Thus if the generator is in use, the
main breaker is turned off and therefore the only way to check for
voltage on the service is at the service itself, hence this whole
discussion.

nate

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