"HeatMan" wrote in message
. ..

"HorneTD" wrote in message
ink.net...
wrote:
I am 70 years old and have a bad heart condition, last year I had
over 11 days of no power and had to live in my home with nothing
but a fireplace and a sleeping bag. Now I have purchased a 2.5kw
diesel powered generator but I can't get anyone to tell how best to
connect it to the furnace.
I want to disconnect the furnace at the circuit breaker and put a
romex cable of 14/2 at the output of the breaker and connect it to a
cable from the generator.
But no one wants to let me know if this will work and if there would
be any possible problems. Can some one let me know if they have
tried this and had any adverse problems.
Thanks for any answers, you can answer me by E-Mail.


At the furnace you will have a cut off switch that a service technician
would use to cut power to the unit when working on it. Replace that
switch with a single receptacle and replace the cable between the switch
and the furnace mechanism with a cord and plug. The cord and plug stay
plugged into the single receptacle until you need to service the unit or
supply it from the generator. To service the unit you unplug it. To
supply it from the generator you unplug it from the single receptacle on
the houses wiring system and plug it into the extension cord from the
generator. This is the simplest and most cost effective solution for
powering the furnace from a generator. The same procedure will work for
well pump controllers. All of the other things you need, like a
refrigerator, are already supplied through cord and plug so they can
easily be plugged into an extension cord from a generator.

The above solution uses a suicide plug and relies on the user to remember to
shut off breakers. A better (safer) way is to disconnect the hard wire from
the furnace. Connect a female socket to the breaker side and a male socket
to the furnace side. Now you can just unplug your furnace and connect it to
an extension cord.
This is good for 110v gensets when you don't have enough power or "poles"
for a whole house, or enough money for a transfer panel. It is also safe
since there is no way to backfeed and no suicide cord.
Many homes here wire the furnace and 110 well pumps this way.
I am not an electrician so I don't know if it is against code but it is as
safe as plugging anything into a socket.