Chris Lewis wrote:
According to Doug Miller :

In article , wrote:



Refrigerator is 120v and requires a separate circuit (NEC).
Oil furnace is 120v and requires a separate circuit (NEC).
Well is either 120v or 240v and requires a separate circuit (NEC).
Water heater is 240v and requires a separate circuit (NEC).
Sump pump is 120v and I think requires a separate circuit.



AFAIK the NEC does not require separate circuits in *any* of those cases. Do
you have a Code citation for that?


No code citation per-se (I'll look tonight if I remember), but the NEC
does require seperate circuits for all of the above (with the possible
exception of the fridge and sump pump. Older code certainly permitted
fridges to be on shared circuits).

CEC has required separate circuits (with some trivial exceptions - ie: you
can put an AC clock on the same circuit as a fridge) for all of the above
except possibly sump pumps.

Both codes tend to require separate circuits for every electrical
motor that may come on at the same time. At least for motors in the 1/4HP
and up range (ie: furnace blowers), unless they're specifically approved
together (ie: a furnace air blower and oil pump).


In any event... the subject was how many circuits do you need to be able to
adequately power your home from a generator, in an emergency - not how many
circuits are required by Code during normal operation.


Since the "automatic transfer" equipment would be shared w.r.t. "emergency"
versus "normal", "normal" use would be in violation of code _too_.


You do realize the refrigerator will be just fine for a short time
without power, and during an extended outage you can run it from an
extension cord? The same thing goes for the sump pump. The water
softener doesn't need backup electric power (after an extended power
outage you might have to do a manual recharge.) So not everything you
might want to use during a power outage needs to be wired to the
transfer panel. It depends how hands-on you are willing to get.

If you don't want to have to do anything, put a big automatic transfer
switch between the meter and the main panel and use the main panel for
all the power distribution.

Best regards,
Bob