On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 21:01:18 -0000, Dean Hoffman wrote:

On 3/12/17 3:43 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:

Ground isn't important. Current only flows through live and neutral.

It's important for those of us who don't walk on water.

Actually it's more important if you walk on water.

--
"It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed." - U.S. Air Force Pilot training manual

On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 14:56:34 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 4:43:24 PM UTC-4, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Sat, 11 Mar 2017 23:02:03 -0000, wrote:

On Sat, 11 Mar 2017 06:24:00 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Friday, March 10, 2017 at 9:45:17 PM UTC-5, wrote:

I lost power from the wind storm that hit the Great Lakes area on Wednesday. Last night I
borrowed a generator from a friend to get the furnace going. I simply unhooked the wires
from the breaker to the switch for the furnace and used an extension cord (with the receptacle
end cut off) and wire nutted the hot to hot, neutral to neutral, and ground to ground from
the generator to the wire that goes from the switch to the furnace. Everything worked fine,
other than the fact that the power came back on less than 3 hours later. It figures.



Leave the ground wires attached - as found -
- but add connect the generator cord's ground wire.
Don't over complicate this.
John T.

That's fine for emergency hooks up like I did, but I' like to install a plug
and play set-up.

The one in the video (cord and plug) doesn't "work" because it disconnects
the ground from the furnace once the plug is disconnected from the receptacle.

Greg's 3-way switch and inlet solves that problem quite nicely.

Something like this would be perfect because it could replace the On-Off
switch currently installed on the furnace.
That's the way I'd do it if I didn't have a transfer
switch/interlock at the panel.. Just switch the live from the panel to
the genset, and leave everything else connected. My brother did that
ay his place - he plugs the "house extention cord" into the generator.
It has 4 or 5 outlets strategically located around the house to plug
things into, and a 3 way switch on the furnace. - all hard-wired - no
extention cords inside the house - and theconnection to the house is
the same as the connection to his travel trailer.

Ground isn't important. Current only flows through live and neutral.

Frigging Idiot. Get the hell out of my thread.
Pull the plug on the fool.

On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 23:12:27 -0000, wrote:

On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 14:56:34 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 4:43:24 PM UTC-4, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Sat, 11 Mar 2017 23:02:03 -0000, wrote:

On Sat, 11 Mar 2017 06:24:00 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Friday, March 10, 2017 at 9:45:17 PM UTC-5, wrote:

I lost power from the wind storm that hit the Great Lakes area on Wednesday. Last night I
borrowed a generator from a friend to get the furnace going. I simply unhooked the wires
from the breaker to the switch for the furnace and used an extension cord (with the receptacle
end cut off) and wire nutted the hot to hot, neutral to neutral, and ground to ground from
the generator to the wire that goes from the switch to the furnace. Everything worked fine,
other than the fact that the power came back on less than 3 hours later. It figures.



Leave the ground wires attached - as found -
- but add connect the generator cord's ground wire.
Don't over complicate this.
John T.

That's fine for emergency hooks up like I did, but I' like to install a plug
and play set-up.

The one in the video (cord and plug) doesn't "work" because it disconnects
the ground from the furnace once the plug is disconnected from the receptacle.

Greg's 3-way switch and inlet solves that problem quite nicely.

Something like this would be perfect because it could replace the On-Off
switch currently installed on the furnace.
That's the way I'd do it if I didn't have a transfer
switch/interlock at the panel.. Just switch the live from the panel to
the genset, and leave everything else connected. My brother did that
ay his place - he plugs the "house extention cord" into the generator.
It has 4 or 5 outlets strategically located around the house to plug
things into, and a 3 way switch on the furnace. - all hard-wired - no
extention cords inside the house - and theconnection to the house is
the same as the connection to his travel trailer.

Ground isn't important. Current only flows through live and neutral.

Frigging Idiot. Get the hell out of my thread.
Pull the plug on the fool.

Earth is for pathetic sissies. Why are you scared of some electrons?

--
An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested in her he is.

On Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 3:01:48 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 09:55:05 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

As would an Interlockit on the panel and inlet. Looks like
the same or less work than your switch/inlet solution for
just the furnace.

Load management is the problem when you are feeding the main panel.
You may find that there is just too much on the 2 or 3 circuits you
want to enable.

Being able to manage the loads from the panel is the beauty of
the whole thing. You could have some situation where there are
too many loads on one circuit, but I think that's rare. In my
case I had:

A freezer on one circuit
A fridge on another
Water heater power vent on another
Furnace on another
Lights/receptacles on a whole bunch of breakers, I just
turned on the ones for the lights/receptacles of interest.
I could have probably turned them all on, because there just
isn't that much there, especially with CFL, LED lights etc.
and with appliances only being used one at a time anyway, etc.

On Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 3:27:41 PM UTC-4, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 3:01:48 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 09:55:05 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:

As would an Interlockit on the panel and inlet. Looks like
the same or less work than your switch/inlet solution for
just the furnace.

Load management is the problem when you are feeding the main panel.
You may find that there is just too much on the 2 or 3 circuits you
want to enable.

That's why I'm keeping it simple. Plug and play for the furnace, extension
cords for a fridge and a few lights. Easily adaptable as the situation
warrants.


Sigh. It's too hard to flip some breakers in the panel?

On Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 3:18:45 PM UTC-4, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 3:00:18 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Mar 2017 09:45:56 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:


Yeah, but...

I'm not looking to power too much, mainly the furnace, one fridge and
a couple of lights. I did that the other night with a couple of extension
cords off a 3500 watt generator. It was good enough for SWMBO and I. We
camp, so roughing it a bit - inside a house - is no problem. :-)

The main goal is to get the furnace up and running as quick as possible
and the switch I linked to does it quick and easy. (As would Greg's
suggestion of a homemade unit with a 3 way switch and inlet.)

I'm also not looking to buy (and store) a huge generator for the rare times
that the power goes out for anything that resembles an "extended period".
3500W is probably more than enough but I need to run some numbers before I
pull the trigger. My neighbor bought a 7000W beast that he never even got
hooked up before the power came back on.

We were lucky. We were without power for less than 36 hours. The
out-of-state crew cleared the lines and restored power along a 1/2 mile
route north of, and including, my street. On the next street to the south
and for another 1/4 mile the generators are still running. I'm not sure
what the delay is. There must have been 15 trucks - bucket trucks, pole
setting trucks, electrician trucks - working late into Thursday evening
to restore my part of the neighborhood. Since then all we've seen is a
few trucks mainly clearing downed trees south of me. There are still poles
to be set and wires to be strung. It sucks to be those without power. It's
been in the low to mid teens since Thursday night.

I bought a 5.5KW several years ago. (a deal I couldn't refuse I put in
the breaker interlock kit and a cable to connect the generator. The
power has not failed since. Great insurance. The generator has never
even had gas in it. Every once in while I pull it over a few times,
rock it and slosh the oil around.
The guy I bought it from had the same experience for the 3 years he
owned it. It was still in the box when I bought it.

"The generator has never even had gas in it."

Just FYI...both generators I dealt with this week had never had gas in them.

The one I borrowed was a few years old but never used. The guy that lent it
to me put a little gas in it but we couldn't get it started while I was at
his house. I brought it home anyway, with the plan to try some starting fluid.
I decided to try to start it without the starting fluid and after a few
sputter and fails, it started. I'd have to say that we tried 30+ pulls
between his house and mine before it finally started. (Yes, the choke was
set correctly)

My neighbor's was brand new out of the box and we ended up using starter
fluid after 10 or so failed pulls. One sputter-fail, then success.

I only bring that up so you don't get worried when you try to start yours
in an emergency. Store a can of starting fluid with it and save your arm.

I think the best solution is to get a generator or one of the conversion
kits that runs on nat gas. No more gas storage, getting gas during an
extended outage, carb fouling, etc.

On Mon, 13 Mar 2017 08:23:32 -0700 (PDT), trader_4
wrote:


I think the best solution is to get a generator or one of the conversion
kits that runs on nat gas. No more gas storage, getting gas during an
extended outage, carb fouling, etc.

Great if the gas pipe is running to your house. It is unavailable in
lots of places ... like here. I have 120 gallons of propane (max) but
after any kind of serious storm, getting more might be tough