Powering my house with a 4500 watt 120v generator.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
- With the recent winter power outages in Texas, there's a lot of interest in home generator setups. This is how I run my house using a $900 generator and a simple mechanical interlock.
All in, this setup cost me less than $1200. And it lets me run every 120 volt circuit in my house. If I ever get a bigger generator, I can even run my 240 volt equipment, including my air conditioner.
The generator is a Westinghouse iGen 4500, it's available in lots of places.
The inlet box and interlock are from interlockkit.com
The male plug for the inlet box is a Marinco CS6364N
I have no affiliations with any of these companies.
Finally, a video for the common folk looking to get a portable generator to power some basic appliances during a power outage.
Informative and well explained!
Well done!
Great video. I recently picked up a Westinghouse i4500DFC inverter for $749 on sale at Lowes. I already have the interlock, breaker, and inlet box installed for my older 7500w generator (super loud) and was trying to figure out how to use the new inverter to feed the house rather than running extension cords. Problem solved with this video. Thank you.
Thanks for the info on putting 120VAC to both legs of the breaker box. I have asked other knowledgeable people if I could do what you did with the plug to supply 120VAC to each leg and they said it wouldn't work. I couldn't figure out why this would not work. This video solved my issue, it will work. Thanks
You don’t even have to make a power cord like he did. You can buy “dogbone” adaptors that are already properly wired to function as needed. I have the same setup except I run my generator through a 50 amp inlet box.
I have the Igen 4500DF and converted it yo use natural gas. Hurricane Francine had knock out my power for 4 days. I only had to stop the generator once to change the oil. I have mine set up the same way. It ran lights, ceiling fans, two refrigerators, Chest freezer, three tv's and a 10,000 BTU window unit with no problems. Who needs to spend $8k for a whole house unit. I have a second unit that i used to run the washer and dryer when needed. It's setup for NG as well. For hurricane Ida we were out of power for 19 days. This little generator was a life saver.
@@JerryHawk250 is there any chance you can show how you wired up the plug with only using 1 wire to power both legs??
I power my home with the iGen5000DF. I have a 50 amp inlet box so I just use a 30 amp to 50 amp dogbone adaptor to connect my 30 amp power cord to the 50 amp inlet. The dogbone adaptor comes already internally wired to feed both legs with 120v. The only appliance I have that my generator can’t run is the AC since it’s 240v. With proper load managing, I can run everything else if needed including furnace, hot water heater, and dryer since they run off our house supplied natural gas. That generator works great for our application.
Great video....I was searching for the info regarding energizing both lines of the panel and you clearly provided that at 4:16....thank you
Thank you. I didn't mention it in the video, but just in case I'll say it here. Be sure that the L1 to L2 connection is made in the cable that connects to the generator. If you make the connection anywhere else, there's the possibility of L1 and L2 being connected while a 240v power source is hooked up. And a 240v short circuit would get spicy!
@@ElQuesoGuapowhat do you mean
Could you please make a video showing how to jumper the plug to be able to supply 120 to both legs of the house? Theoretically energizing all 120 circuit in the house. Thanks.
There is a better or cleaner way. Purchase a standard 240 generator cord...and a short "conversion" cord that will take your generator 120 output and split it into both legs for the generator cord. I have this kind of set-up, except mine is the 30 amp four pin inlet box rather than the 50 amp.
And actually I would recommend replacing the 50 amp inlet box with a 30 amp. The reason is that the 30 amp 240v generator cord will be less expensive that a 50 amp cord and easier to handle.
Tell me more about this "conversion" cord please?
@@RandomStuff-zt6qf Search: NEMA TT-30P to L14-30R Adapter Cord, 30 Amp 3 Prong to 4 Prong Generator Plug Adapter, Generator Transfer Switch Adapter, Generator to House Inlet Box
It takes the 120V generator output, and feeds it to both 120V legs of the house. So the house is 120V single phase...and nothing 240V will work...but everything 120v will work.
Your supposed to shut every breaker off when using an interlock then slowly turn on what you need
For the same installation cost you could do 240. A 240 inverter generator would only have cost a bit more. My advice is to always go 240 for interlock setup.
I agree. I have that 120v unit because I bought it first, for use with my trailer which required 120 v 30 amp service. The generator was perfectly matched for that.
Then Uri happened, and I decided to add a generator hookup to the house. I can't justify a new generator yet. But if I was buying one now, I'd go with a 240v 50 amp inverter unit.
@@ElQuesoGuapo Ah, I get that now. I am in Austin and after the big freeze I put in an interlock and got a Champion 6250 inverter generator. All of my neighbors (and even my girlfriend) thought I was over-reacting, but during the recent ice storm, the power was off in my neighborhood for 2.5 days and there were only two houses in the entire neighborhood with power, the woman across the street that spent $16,000 on a stand by generator, and my house. As soon as the power came back, I had five different neighbors come to me and ask me what I was using. Three of them have already bought 5000 watt inverter generators and they are all getting interlocks and inlets put in. They realize they may never need it, but after two long outages in two years, they think it is worth having a generator as insurance. That was exactly what I thought when I set mine up 2 years ago, and I have already had to run mine 4 times.
Actually he is set up to feed 240, but if you have a "small" generator, and don't need to feed anything 240, then using 120 is more efficient. I say that because you don't have to balance the generator by leg....only balance by total load. You can feed a 240 inlet box by splitting the 120 output using a conversion cord.
I agree with you and not sure about the video creator but I got a 3600/4500 peak 120v Westinghouse with handle and wheel kit for sale on Amazon brand new for $273 so I did similar to him.. bought 10awg sheathed wire, an inlet box. 30A breaker and interlock. I had to relocate a few breakers since 120v only runs 1 bar but I have about 90% of my house lights, both my fridges for an outage. NOW where it sucks is that in NW TN there's no natural gas so my water heater and stove are electric which sucks.. i can throw on layers of blankets or run multiple fans if needed but mainly lights and keeping food cold work for me..
Hell if i really needed to cook i have a gas stove and I could also run my pellet electric smoker as an oven if need be.. anyways i get your comment but that is why I have 120V instead and I really saw some of the downsize but hell for around $400 with generator, wire, inlet, breaker and interlock kit to sustain my whole house I aint complaining 😂😂
My old house out in CA I had nothing with the exception of led lights gas lanterns etc for lighting and weather wasn't a huge concern. If i really needed I have a 300w inverter that connects to a car battery but I am a lot more equipped now and I have been in an outage in CA for 3 days but a little planning can go a long way tbh
it isn't cheaper when you already own a 120v
Very informative. Thank you
For those who care, as long as you cut off your main breaker BEFORE you start your generator, the linesmen will be fine. No need for the special switch.
One thing to make sure if you get a generator is find out if it has a floating or bonded neutral. Westinghouse brands usually come with a floating neutral meaning that it is ready to hook up to a main panel where the neutral and grounds are bonded..
Of you're trying to run this with another brand or sub panel you must make sure to switch it.
There can only be 1 bonded neutral in a full circuit, and I don't have the exact answer but I did watch a video on why and forgot the reasoning.. it had something to do with possibly letting the return power go through still or something like that.
Ground conductor is not normally supposed to carry current. If the neutral is connected to ground in more than one place then neutral current would be shared between the neutral conductor and the ground conductor.
@@lotsofcases6522 you are absolutely right, but I once had a 240 generator running and the neutral failed, it sent 240 through the entire house, destroying a microwave and various other things if it was bonded at the generator as well, the ground would've taken over the job.
I’m not sure what westing houses you’re talking about but almost every Manuel they have shows how to make their generators floating neutral because they come bonded
Any chance can you show how you wired the inside of the plug in?? How you made it power both legs with 1 wire
Gas stove? Keep an old style percolator pot you can use with a cook stove or camp stove. No power needed.
That makes perfect sense
You wou would be suprised how little amps/load the furnace takes. 300-400 watts. Only has to run inducer fan, glow igniter, then main blower, which most have a capacitor so it will slowly ramp up. If anyone has natural gas and lose electricity, the gas furnace will take priority,
yeah, I was going to mention that here as well. I have an Emporia energy monitor on my circuits, and I can see the realtime power draw of my furnace. It's a fairly modern, high efficiency gas unit. And you can see as it runs that it is set up to very gradually start up, in steps, maybe 100W at a time, until it gets up to full speed which is not more than 400W. Seems like it will be very gentle on a generator.
@@CurtisKlope The only thing you *may* have to do on the generator is to make sure it a bonded neutral. Some newer furnaces will not work if it's a floating neutral. Very easy adapter you can make. Get a three prong plug from homedepot, Attach a very short piece of 12 ga wire and tie the ground pin (the round one) to the neutral (the wider of the 2 prongs or the silver terminal) and it's done. Plug that in a spare plug on the generator or power strip. Search for neutral grounding plug and get one pre-made.
Great video! I really need to do this, but I think I need to invest in that sub box now as I'm out of breakers, lol.
Time for some tandem breakers!
Could you please make a video showing how to jumper the plug to be able to supply 120 to both legs of the house? Theoretically energizing all 120 circuit in the house. Thanks.
No kidding. I dont understand why someone would go to the trouble of making this video and not cover a critical part of the process.
I'm trying to say this without being rude, but I'm probably going to fail. If you're not sure how to connect two pins together inside a plug, you should not be attempting this.
I'm not a professional electrician, and this isn't a HowTo video. That's why I didn't show myself building this. Instead I showed you the finished product, so that people can be aware that there's a right way and a wrong way to do this. And the wrong way can kill.
If in doubt, hire a pro.
@@postal2451 heres another hack no one knows you can do. wire your 120v generator into your panel and run half your breakers on 120volt just make sure all your 240 volt breakers are off. So for example I know a guy to have a 3600kw 120 volt generator with 30 amp output plug. so this guy I know then made the sucide cord bypass by bying expensive complete contained insulated plug hit one end always stay in generator and other end is wired to the bottom right in the 200 amp panel in the house. via a single 30amp 120 volt breaker. He then rearanged all his 120volt breakers in a manner so that half the panel works so imagine looking inside the panel at the 2 columbs of breakers so if the bottom right 30 am 120 volt from generator is on it will skip and not feed power to the next breaker up in line and then power the one after that and this alternates all the way up the panel and down the other side. being that the house has nautural gas furnace the 120v blower can be powered. As long as you maintain a low load on the circuits your good to go no running coffe makers and microwave at same time, Make sure all your 240volt breakers are off when doing this otherwise you will half fase your appliance like dryer and oven and possibly burn your house down or for sure destroy your wirring if those 240 volt devices are not off during generator use. The other draw back is you might have to move breaker positions and wires for what powers what to ensure you get power to the rooms you want it in. In an emergency outage that cAN last for days you really dont need all your loutlets and house lights to function. Choose wisely. I know a guy who has 3 main disconeects on property that can all be turned off for tripple safety. If you have a garage attached or not but it is close to house panel concider running the generator in the garage and bolt on a short run of good iron pipe to the muffler flange and run it out under the garage door keeping door cracked open a bit and installing a bolt latch for security of door for that height this way you keep your generator safe and more stealthy when in use. You could always just drill 1" diameter hole through garage wall footing insulate wwrap your pipe for heat and vent it out that way so you can keep your garage door shut completely. It wont run out of oxogen in a decent sized garage space. Keep a carbon monoxide detector or 2 mounted or placed low to the ground maybe one in the garage and one just inside the house for safety. I see this as an exelent way to power up the house in emergency or appocolipse. keep the windows and blinds shut and outside lighting off so no one driving by can easly tell you got power, or just live in the sticks like me, I mean " like this guy I know of ".
@@postal2451 heres another hack no one knows you can do. wire your 120v generator into your panel and run half your breakers on 120volt just make sure all your 240 volt breakers are off. So for example I know a guy to have a 3600kw 120 volt generator with 30 amp output plug. so this guy I know then made the sucide cord bypass by bying expensive complete contained insulated plug hit one end always stay in generator and other end is wired to the bottom right in the 200 amp panel in the house. via a single 30amp 120 volt breaker. He then rearanged all his 120volt breakers in a manner so that half the panel works so imagine looking inside the panel at the 2 columbs of breakers so if the bottom right 30 am 120 volt from generator is on it will skip and not feed power to the next breaker up in line and then power the one after that and this alternates all the way up the panel and down the other side. being that the house has nautural gas furnace the 120v blower can be powered. As long as you maintain a low load on the circuits your good to go no running coffe makers and microwave at same time, Make sure all your 240volt breakers are off when doing this otherwise you will half fase your appliance like dryer and oven and possibly burn your house down or for sure destroy your wirring if those 240 volt devices are not off during generator use. The other draw back is you might have to move breaker positions and wires for what powers what to ensure you get power to the rooms you want it in. In an emergency outage that cAN last for days you really dont need all your loutlets and house lights to function. Choose wisely. I know a guy who has 3 main disconeects on property that can all be turned off for tripple safety. If you have a garage attached or not but it is close to house panel concider running the generator in the garage and bolt on a short run of good iron pipe to the muffler flange and run it out under the garage door keeping door cracked open a bit and installing a bolt latch for security of door for that height this way you keep your generator safe and more stealthy when in use. You could always just drill 1" diameter hole through garage wall footing insulate wwrap your pipe for heat and vent it out that way so you can keep your garage door shut completely. It wont run out of oxogen in a decent sized garage space. Keep a carbon monoxide detector or 2 mounted or placed low to the ground maybe one in the garage and one just inside the house for safety. I see this as an exelent way to power up the house in emergency or appocolipse. keep the windows and blinds shut and outside lighting off so no one driving by can easly tell you got power, or just live in the sticks like me, I mean " like this guy I know of ".
@@ElQuesoGuapo In the RV world there are adaptors that do this very thing. 50 amp RV'ers use these when all they have is a 30 amp pedestal. Easy to google these up on Amazon for 20 bucks. Just got to pick the right styles of males and females and that would bypass the noob risk doing what you did.....yes?
We could directly add this plug in dryer outlet so we can power house … only think we have to make sure we connect two legs with 120 volt like how you did
That is known as a suicide cord. Don't do it.
@@ElQuesoGuapo What difference it would make?
Dryer is installed in garage and dryer cables would run towards breaker and feed in a main breaker
Same way if we going to install generator inlet that will also run cables to breaker and power will distribute.
What difference it would make?
@@ltp9113 The lack of an interlock means that you can backfeed the grid and kill a lineman. Your cable will have male ends on both ends, which means that you can easily touch the exposed ends and electrocute yourself. And you don't know if the wiring for your dryer is rated for the kind of amperage that your generator can put out.
I know you think that you've come up with a good idea. But a lot of other people have gotten the same idea, and have gotten themselves or other people killed.
It's called a suicide cord for a reason. Please don't make one. Do the job right, or don't do it at all.
Thank you. I have same generator like you have and going to feed small appliances max 30 amp
So i want to make sure that you split 120 into two lines and feed into the grid ride?
And yes it won’t run 240 volt but basically you are feeding other leg (120 bolt) for breaker.
Thank you so much for detailed video. I wish you had shown how did you connect those wire together just to make sure
But I’ll split 120 into 120 volt and feed two hot wires with 240 volt breaker.
This technique would be dangerous for me and the way my house is wired. Many of my 15A and 20A runs use a shared neutral using 14-3 or 12-3 Romex. This means for each lug of the split phase, they ran the red and the black wires off different 120v breakers but then shared the neutral between those two separate circuits in the single Romex, it then branched out to separate circuits at the switch boxes or outlet branches. This only works because if the two 120V circuits pull the same amount of current, the current on the neutral cancels out to zero, if only one circuit pulls 120V current, then the equal current comes back on the neutral, in general this wiring method saves energy and cost because of less neutral runs and the canceling out of current feature reducing the amount wasted transmission loss in the neutral. If I used this 120V generator technique where I connect the two lugs of the split phase together like he did in this video at the generator input plug, I would risk putting 30 amps through my 14gauge neutral feeders if both 15 amp circuits were fully loaded.
Does your generator not have a jumper between ground and neutral? For your setup the breaker box has the ground and neutral connected. This can only be done once in a system. Unless you run power cords from the generator to your appliances you need to remove the shunt from the ground to neutral. It is out of code and unsafe to have 2 shunts in the system.
Good advice. My generator has a floating neutral, so it's in compliance.
Yes yes, but tell us more about the Alitalia NA in the garage! In all seriousness, it's a real shame we have to consider this as a necessity in one of the most wealthy, advanced cities int he world... but here we are.
From what I understand,
The inlet cable is a 10/2 cable (lets define it as Cable A)
And the cable from the inlet box to the Panel is a 10/3 cable (let’s define it as Cable B)
So, Cable A has 1 Hot, 1 Neutral and 1 Ground wires.
Cable B has 2 Hots, 1 Neutral and 1 Ground wire. 1 Hot wire power 1 leg in the Panel.
So, inside the Inlet Box, the Hot wire from Cable 1 is connected to the 2 Hot wires from Cable B.
That’s what I understand.
You are almost correct. The connection from 1 hot to 2 hots happens in Cable A. Since Cable A is only used with this generator, it's safer.
If the connection from 1 hot to 2 hots happened in Cable B, it would be present even if a 240v generator was connected to the inlet panel. And that would create a dead short.
You have the inlet plug ready for 240V, so, that can happen in the Cable A, inside the plug.
If the inlet plug isn’t ready for 240V, then it has to happen in Cable B inside the inlet box.
I am looking exactly what you did.
The only difference in our situations were, you have a 240V ready inlet box, and I have a 120V only inlet box.
Yeah. I think the goal was to have the breaker panel wired up 240 properly including the connection box. The setup is normal when the rigged cable is not connected. Smart idea for 120V generator owners. That is if it is easy enough to make a safe secure jump between the two 120 legs.
Thanks for the video. I have a 240 generator but have a friend who does not. Seems like a less sketchy way to jump the 120 vs. jumping it in the panel. You can have a legal 240V panel and generator port wired up.
Hi good afternoon I have a 3 prong cord can you show me how you have it wired in your panel plz thank you
Trying to find out myself, so far I've come to the conclusion it's nothing special, just run a jumper wire between both hots in the plug
My main breakers are vertical and the individual ones are horizontal. Is there a lock out device designed to accommodate this lay out?
Did you just put a jumper in between A and B to get 120 to both sides?
Yup! I did it in the cable from the generator to the house, so there's no chance of the jumper being in the circuit unless the generator is in use.
I’ve got the same exact inventor. Purchased 3 months ago. Had an electrician come out yesterday to quote on an Interlock install on panel. Said just one leg would be energized. Solution solved here I believe. Can you provide the part info or link that hooked into your outside connection where you jumped an internal wire on the black plug effectively charging both legs? Much appreciated if you could.
Hi. The parts list is in the video description.
Got it! Had to click “see more”. Thank you!
This is a good solution UNTIL you forget to turn off your air conditioner breaker. Your AC could catch fire and burn your house down running 120v instead of 240v. Really dangerous.
Not enough power to kick it on!!! generator would blow a breaker!
It's pretty much common sense to turn of all breakers before connecting and common sense would tell you when you have a 120V generator that anything with a double pole is likely 240v and will not work.. im not talking about a single pole split breaker but a beefy full size double pole which has the AMP rating right on the switch.
It would be VERY unlike to confuse it with a single pole IMO but hey I've seen idiots backfeed their panels from the dryer plug so who am I to say someone wouldn't do this? 😂😂
From my understanding the A/C just won't do anything because it'll basically see 0 volts between the two hots
Does energizing both hots on the plug power both legs in the panel creating a 240 circuit? Also do you loose any amps from your generator by wiring the plug the way you did?
Both legs are energized to 120 volts, but it doesn't create a 240 volt circuit. Voltage is a measurement of the difference in electric potential between two points. With this setup, both legs are 120 volts in comparison to the neutral. That's what all of your 120 volt equipment needs in order to run.
In normal use, the two legs of the house panel would be 180 degrees out of phase with each other. When one leg is "pushing" electricity, the other is "pulling". That's how you get 240 volts from the pair of 120 volt legs.
With this setup, both legs are at 120 volts with respect to ground, but they're at zero volts with respect to each other. Both legs are "pushing" at the same time, and both are "pulling" at the same time. The 240 volt equipment can't operate, because it's literally seeing zero volts.
There's no change in the generator's output. It's still making 120 volts just like it always does.
crap, so my 240v water well pump probably won't work :/@@ElQuesoGuapo
Did you jump the breaker?
No, that's too dangerous. The jumper is in the generator cord, so that it's only in place when I'm using that generator. Anyone modifying that cord to use a 240v generator would have to open the connector in order to add the fourth wire. They'd be forced to see the jumper and remove it.
If I understand correctly you are splicing the 120 to power both legs of the main breaker box? And in doing so basically having 2 120 legs of the same phase which of course is why 240 appliances won’t work, correct?
Yes, you understand perfectly.
Thanks. It’s come time for me to do this to my house. My power is out for the 3rd time in a month. The consequences of living in a wooded area, lol
@@jasond4752- do yourself a favor and get a generator that has 240V then you don’t have to do this rigging and it won’t cost you any more
@@condor5635 I actually already did it. Lost power about a month ago and it works great to power the necessities. A quiet duel fuel inverter generator with a 240 outlet is actually a lot more expensive. The one I got is 120v 4500 watts for about $800, the smallest dual fuel quiet inverter I could find with a 240v outlet was 9500 watts and is around $2300. Also, the 240 plug on that generator was only rated at 30 amps so it really made no sense to go that way.
@@jasond4752 I’m sure inverters are nice but I don’t really see the need especially the limited amount of time this thing will have over 10 or 20 year lifespan. Most of the generators now have less than 5% THD and I’ve never had issues with any appliances having any issues whatsoever running my generator.
At least Westinghouse ones
But your 2nd leg of 120 is'nt out of phase. Long story short, yes not use 240 appliances.
why didnt you explain how your energizing both legs with a single hot?
He did!! He jumped L1 and L2 in the plug.
50A should have 6AWG wire. 8AWG wire In your case 30A which is the max you can draw! 10:24
Thanks for commenting. I think you might be looking at a chart for solid wire. Solid 8awg is rated for 40amps. I'm using 8ga THHN/THWN-2 which is rated for 50 amps (per the electrical engineer who advised me and the site that sold me the wire).
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Yeah it’s rated at 55 amps for that type of wire.
What will you do when you have no more gasoline ???
That’s why you get plenty of gasoline for the period of time you’re gonna need it. What do you think? He just keeps 2 gallons around or something?
Must suck to have the breaker box outside.. id hate to have to do the walk of shame everytime i popped one..
Yeah, that’s a walk you must have to do a lot. I’ve lived in my house 25 years and I’ve never popped a breaker.
I always wanted to try a 220v load like a stove or AC with your current set up. ( NO PUNN INTENDED) do you think it would work, being that its the same 120v leg or is there a problem with it not being true alternating current
It won't work at all. There's no voltage different between the two legs, so the 240v devices will see no volts at all.
Do you still have the westinghouse igen if so how well has it held up
So far I'm happy with it. It doesn't get used that often, but it's been reliable. As with any small engine, the trick is to drain the carb before you store it. I haven't needed to use it to power my house yet, but it's nice to know that it's available if I need it.
Wich 3 cables come from the distribution to the box? 2 hots and ..neutral or ground?
From the inlet box to the panel there are four wires. Two hots, a neutral and a ground. You've gotta have all four.
I’m curious on how you can run your furnace on a 30 amp 3700 watt generator I have a 50 amp 9500 watt generator and can’t run my furnace
Hi Mike,
I'm guessing that you have a heat pump, which is basically an air conditioner running in reverse. Heat pumps need 240 volts and they draw a lot of amps, especially at startup.
My furnace is gas, so it only needs 120 volts to run the blower and electronics.
Take a look at the breaker for your heat pump. If it's 50 amps or less, then you can probably run it from your generator. The startup load is what generators cannot handle. And you might be able to take care of that with a soft start system for the compressor.
@@ElQuesoGuapo Hello I have central heat and air conditioning heater is in attic ac is out side my my electrician says my generator is about 5 amps shy and it’s a brand new house
No definitely not a heat pump just a electric furnace
Why would you shut off of kk things the refrigerator
I turned it back on. I just shut off the heavy loads when the generator is first coming on, then I add them back one at a time to avoid overloading the generator.
We had an electrician install an interlock kit with a 50 amp breaker and mistakingly put a 50 amp "outlet" (female) box on the outside of the house. I did not want to use a male-to-male cord from my generator to the house, so called them back and they swapped out that box with a 30 amp inlet instead (with male plugs sticking out). But is that a problem having a 30 amp generator inlet box wired to a 50 amp breaker? I have a generator with only 5200 running watts and it likely has its own 30 A breaker, so theoretically it shouldn't ever be able to be overloaded if I'm using correct cords that only plug into a 30 amp receptacle. But still, shouldn’t the breaker and inlet box numbers match? On top of that, since the breaker is already 50 amps and I assume the wiring is already thicker gauge rated for that, why didn't they install a 50 amp inlet box to match? I'd just get an adapter to plug in my 30 A generator to the 50 A inlet? I figure might as well future proof the house system in case I ever move, or decide to get a larger generator that has a 50 A receptacle. Thanks
I think it's fine.
The breaker's job is to protect the house wiring. Since the house wiring is rated to 50 amps, the 50 amp breaker is OK. You could swap to a 30 amp breaker if you really wanted to. There's no harm in it, but probably no advantage either. The generator cannot produce more than 30 amps, so it's not able to produce enough power to harm the wiring. The generator would shut itself off before it ever produced enough power to trip the 30 amp or the 50 amp breaker.
@@ElQuesoGuapo but since they already put in a 50 amp breaker and wiring rated for that, shouldn’t I just get the 50 amp inlet to match? Then I or the next homeowner can get the most potential from it?
@@1980sLegoFan Yeah, I would. I've got a 50 amp inlet box even though my generator's a 30 amp unit. It gives me the option of running a bigger generator later on.
So no fridge? :/
someone didn't watch all the way
I can run the fridge. I just shut it off when I'm first starting the generator.
Fun
heres another hack no one knows you can do. wire your 120v generator into your panel and run half your breakers on 120volt just make sure all your 240 volt breakers are off. So for example I know a guy to have a 3600kw 120 volt generator with 30 amp output plug. so this guy I know then made the sucide cord bypass by bying expensive complete contained insulated plug hit one end always stay in generator and other end is wired to the bottom right in the 200 amp panel in the house. via a single 30amp 120 volt breaker. He then rearanged all his 120volt breakers in a manner so that half the panel works so imagine looking inside the panel at the 2 columbs of breakers so if the bottom right 30 am 120 volt from generator is on it will skip and not feed power to the next breaker up in line and then power the one after that and this alternates all the way up the panel and down the other side. being that the house has nautural gas furnace the 120v blower can be powered. As long as you maintain a low load on the circuits your good to go no running coffe makers and microwave at same time, Make sure all your 240volt breakers are off when doing this otherwise you will half fase your appliance like dryer and oven and possibly burn your house down or for sure destroy your wirring if those 240 volt devices are not off during generator use. The other draw back is you might have to move breaker positions and wires for what powers what to ensure you get power to the rooms you want it in. In an emergency outage that cAN last for days you really dont need all your loutlets and house lights to function. Choose wisely. I know a guy who has 3 main disconeects on property that can all be turned off for tripple safety. If you have a garage attached or not but it is close to house panel concider running the generator in the garage and bolt on a short run of good iron pipe to the muffler flange and run it out under the garage door keeping door cracked open a bit and installing a bolt latch for security of door for that height this way you keep your generator safe and more stealthy when in use. You could always just drill 1" diameter hole through garage wall footing insulate wwrap your pipe for heat and vent it out that way so you can keep your garage door shut completely. It wont run out of oxogen in a decent sized garage space. Keep a carbon monoxide detector or 2 mounted or placed low to the ground maybe one in the garage and one just inside the house for safety. I see this as an exelent way to power up the house in emergency or appocolipse. keep the windows and blinds shut and outside lighting off so no one driving by can easly tell you got power, or just live in the sticks like me, I mean " like this guy I know of ".
Let's recap:
You made up a male to male cord, even though you know it's called a "suicide cord".
You've got a system that works fine unless you forget to flip a couple of switches, and then you might burn your house down.
You're running the generator in an attached garage even though every generator's manual says to not do that.
I wish you luck with that. I'll leave your comment here as an example of what not to do.
Oh no sir i know a guy with setup with a detached shop. And iv seen that this setup i described works for years because hes not a typical youtube idiot wise butt comment or and has a mastery of skills and trades. Hes also a big Trump and Alex Jones supporter. Lol average Americans are truly idiots comments posted about how hard it is to do a twist lock cord in the dark example.. don't these tards have a flashlight? Secondly as i discribed it is not a sucide cord because one end is attached to the breaker and the other end connecting to the generator is completely sealed contact pin design to go to the sealed contact receiver end at generator. Its stuff only sold at real commercial electric supply companies that you must have an account to purchase from. But you wouldn't know anything about that would ya troll?
@@ElQuesoGuapo Yeah. You know you shouldn't rig up in the panel. You just know you shouldn't :) Keep the 240V setup correct in the breaker panel and jump on the cable :)
Pretty useless vid unless you have an inlet box already wired to your panel.
Someone like me who just wired my house for 240V has watched a lot of videos. There are correct and rigged 240V setup videos. Beryl just went through and I know some people who have 120V generators. He is showing a way to plug in and use 120V on a correct safe 50A 240V setup as the title says.
Not really, I have the same generator (except that mine is duel fuel). I'm installing damn near the same setup (different intake jack, and I have a split panel). Otherwise, it is helpful to see what others have done in my same situation. My stove, hot water heater, dryer, and 240v heaters won't work. I'll have lights, internet, wifi, TV, and a warm bedroom. Good enough for me. Added bonus; I won't kill a lineman...
Any idea how many feet / long the wiring ( 10 gauge ) can be from the inlet box to the house panel ? Hoping to keep the Gen. far away from the living / TV room.
I’d put the inlet box as close to your panel as you can. Easier to run the wiring. Then a 50’ 10 gauge cord from your gen to the box.
@@jstins so your saying 50 feet is the max length of the wire or gen cord ? I need it to be 100 feet away . Would that be OK ? or 100 feet just to much ?