Pending blizzard in bound by me...(1.26.15)

i have a Generac portable gas generator. Rated at 5500 watts. I used it at an earlier power outtage and it worked fine (but i had ~200' of extension cords laying all over).

i've heard this information from a few different resources and wanted to bounce this off some of you electrically familiar people.

i can throw the breaker to the main panel in off position. run the generator and plug that into one of the outlets of the house. this will now back feed the entire panel throughout the house. No messy extension cord maze anymore.

quesitons...
my generator has 4 - 3 prong outlets, can i plug at least two of those to the closest outlet (house side).

the amount of current drawing through those two extension cords, will those heat up or be degraded at all due to the amount flowing through it? any fire hazard?

(my information resources were other home owners that have done this already and two certified electricians)

thanks for any feedback.

 

i want to emphasize, main panel breaker will be in OFF position, prior to hooking up the generator (i realize the hazard for the utility linemen out repairing the downed line)

 

I don't know why it wouldn't work but no way would I do it.

Typical breaker is 15 amps, wiring can be as small as 14 Ga. and you have a 5500 Watt generator.

Hate to say it but if I were inclined to do something like that, I would run a pigtail to the dead side of the main breaker at the box with a 220 female plug hanging, then you can throw the breaker, and plug in your double male plug cable from gennie to box.

At least you would be feeding the bus direct.

 

A 110v outlet only feeds half the panel, and only 15 amps before mayhem. Won't work well. Theoretically you could find two 115v outlets that happen to be wired to opposite sides in the panel. Still would be limited to 3500 watts or so perfectly balanced before a breaker trips. The breakers in this setup are on the wrong end of the wires, so trouble on the wire could light a fire in the wall and not trip the breaker.

Quick, dirty, effective, somewhat unsafe and probably illegal solution:

Install a 30 amp 220v breaker and wire to a dryer outlet. Feed that outlet from the 220V twist lock connector on the generator. Use 10G wire. Be sure the main is off first.

Much better, safe, and legal solution:
Install a second panel, 100 amp is plenty. Sub panel will also work using a 220 v 30 amp breaker as the main.
Feed that panel main from the generator.
In your main panel, pull critical circuits, ie freezer, water pump, furnace, kitchen refrigerator, computer/communications, etc out of the main panel into a switch box, which can be any arrangement of spdt (3 way) switches.
Wire each circuit thus pulled to the common of a switch.
Wire one of the other terminals to the main box breaker you took the circuit off.
Wire the other one to a breaker in the second panel (generator feed)
Each switch then will transfer a load from the main panel to the generator panel when thrown.

This gives you several advantages.
1. It is safe as generator power never goes to the main panel.
2. You can rotate loads if the generator can't keep up with all of them.
3. A forgotten heater or something is blocked from overloading the emergency system.

Finesse system:
As above with relays, auto start, programmable load rotation, etc.

 

As already said.

In my house I have a 220v plug with dedicated breakers in the workshop. When no power, I first turn the main breaker off, then connect my 5,000 watt Generac to the 220v plug. This setup has successfully powered my entire house a few times already. Only downside is that this generator is unbelievably noisy. Wish I could kill some of that noise.

To connect the gene to the house I made up a short, special 4 wire 12 ga extension cord with two male twist lock plugs. Two male plugs scares the heck out of me, but as I am the only one that uses it, figured that it is relatively safe. The highest load on this is the fridge and have checked a few times and the extension cord is always cool to the touch. Voltage at the breaker box under load is correct.

 

I have a 10,000 watt electric start back up generator and a 5,000 watt back up unit for it should it fail. I back feed from my garage using a dedicated 6 ga wire protected by a 50 amp circuit breaker I installed for the hot tub.

To use it I kill the main breaker to isolate the home from the outside line and turn off the breakers for the water pump, water heater and both heat pumps. I have a power inlet box mounted in the garage (that doubles as my 220 supply for my compressor) that accepts a 4 prong 40 amp female plug on a 20 ft 10 ga cord from the 40 amp generator supply.

With breakers in the off position on the generator I fire it up and allow it to come to operating temps before turning the breaker on to energize the circuit. The first thing that happens is that both fridges reset and fire up, I allow them about 10 mins to settle down then I turn on one heat pump at a time and after a bit the water heater and water pump.

Doing it in this fashion keeps the entire house up but keeps everything from hitting the generator all at once. It will also run the electric heaters in the shop if I only use 1 heat pump and the pellet stove in the basement man cave.....which by the way keeps all 3 levels nice and warm

Downside like Stan stated is the noise but I plan on fabbing a add on muffler to solve that issue. The other issue is the lack of knowing when the power is restored on the line. Currently the only way to tell at night is if the neighbors lights come on. Daytime I have to look at the meter to see if the face is lit up but that can mean a trip out into the snow when I would rather stay inside.

 

Been toying with the idea of adding a small LED to the line BEFORE the main breaker which will stay on whenever there is power. That way can easily see when the power comes back.