Nutek

Thanks!

I'm heavily leaning toward doing things this way and maybe not working on the breakout panel right now (though I would like to at some point).

If I can get a (fused) 50A feed into the back of the panel then it really would be advantageous to be able to choose whatever circuits I want to run at any given time. Just so long as I am mindful of what I run concurrently.

ddsrph

You can confirm if the above panel is what you need by talking with the people at a wholesale electrical supplier that caters to electricians. They will have some good ideas on what to use. If you are going to get a permit it might be worth it to get a preview from the inspector. Here for a small fee you can get an advisory inspection before starting. You could also make the case that you are just replacing a defective receptacle. If your in place switch is OK as is then it would be very easy to make It work. If the main panel breakers are clearly marked turning on only the ones you want would be easy.

Nutek

My next door neighbor is an electrician so I can have him hop the fence and do it for me.

The panel is clearly marked for each breaker and what is attached. The barn has a 100A sub panel so that part is separated out already.

S Folinsky

As a result of this thread my news feed now gets articles on generator hookups. More than ever I believe a detailed electrical system analysis combined with the proposed generator/inverter in question is needed. It used to be fairly common for two 120 v circuits to share a neutral (it saves copper and makes for an easier installation). I know our recent upgrade of the main service and concomitant conversion of the old main box to a sub panel was complicated by that there were two shared neutrals which LADBS inspector spotted by counting wires.

It seems that it is a bad idea to hook up a 120v generator (as opposed to a 240) to two circuits sharing a neutral.

Electricity can be scary.

Steerpike

The bolded bit seems quite obvious, and was why I first flagged a concern about Nutek's picture. I saw the red and black wires, my mind ASSUMED 120V, and that seemed to be an issue. But once he said 240V, all was well. Now, wire is wire, and colored insulation is only a 'guide', but - if one were to do things to code, what colored wires would be approved / appropriate for a 240 V generator (assuming three wires total - 120V (#1), 120V (#2) and Neutral? Are red and black OK for the two 120V's?

Edit To Add - just found this:

http://waterheatertimer.org/How-to-w...t-outlets.html


(this is for a water heater outlet, but close enough for now). So - Red and Black for the two 'hots' is fine, it would seem.

ddsrph

If only three wire, two hots and a ground I think (as a non electrician) either two black or a black and red would be ok. It’s common to use Romex 10ga for 220v which has a white and a black plus a bare ground in one plastic wrapped cable. In this case the white wire used as the second hot is wrapped with black tape at the terminal ends to show it is being used as a hot and not a common.

Nutek

Nutek

As stated previously, gen is 240VAC

lansbury

The connection for the generator is now installed.

ddsrph

Good looking installation. In
moving those circuits from main panel did they have to splice some of the wires for extra length?

lansbury

Just one.

ddsrph

That was good and now you have the perfect setup plus a bunch of extra spaces in main and sub panel.

lansbury

The main panel was full, if we needed to run extra circuits it would have meant changing the panel, so this way was a bonus.

ottotheboar

Looks to be a nice tidy safe installation. Generally around here more people die after a hurricane or ice storm due to incorrect use of generators and chain saws than during the event.

scrubbedexpat099

California has banned them.