[rustyhook]

I have a 5000 generator and have heard you can hook it directly to breaker box to power a "few" thinks directly thru home wiring. i have common sense but no electrical knowledge. could someone explain it in a easy way to understand? maybe it's not a good thing to do. i'm in North Houston, just worried about power outages, not flooding.

RH

 

[willydavenport]

Very carefully...

 

[oc48]

generator

you're not going to do it today and you'd want an electrician to do it for your if/when you decide to do it.

 

[ShadMan]

First off, I believe it is illegal to do so without the appropriate automatic safeguards in place ($1k+) to protect electric workers that come to restore power to your neighborhood. Aside from that, if your house has not been wired specifically to do that with a 220 plug in place (it is possible to use a dryer plug) and you don't have experience doing it, I wouldn't attempt it. In addition to possible injury, you risk damaging any sensitive electronic equipment that is plugged in.

 

[Pocketfisherman]

You need to first install a disconnect to isolate your house from the electric company first. You could do this by pulling the mains fuses or breakers in your panel that supply the bus bars. If this does not make much sense to you, don't try to do it as you're dealing with enough current to kill you.

 

[wet dreams]

AFTER flipping breaker you can plug into a wall plug and run whatevers on that circuit....WW

 

[MMMMGOOD]

Turn of your main breaker first so as to not send power back out the line in the evert that the power co comes out to restore they dont get bit.........

You can plug into an outlet and run those plugs in that line... You will not power through your breaker box and run the whole house the generator isnt big enough and also would not be hooked up properly either..........

 

[rustyhook]

THANK YOU

thanks for all the quick and great advice. i will NOT attempt to do this. it seems to be way more than the knowledge i have. i may call cajunbob. but i believe i will settle on just using cords. THANKS AGAIN.

RH

 

[SJAdventures]

What I have done is ahead of time I buy some 100' rolls of 12-2 wire and with regular 120 volt outlets and outlet boxes I make up some multi plugin extension cords and plug the items I want to run in each individual room into the 12-2 extension cords I have made and I then plug those cords into the generator. It is basically an exposed 110 line just like inside the walls of your home. My generator is located so I can plug my freezer/s directly into the generator without the use of any type of extension cord.

 

[ShadMan]

What I have done is ahead of time I buy some 100' rolls of 12-2 wire and with regular 120 volt outlets and outlet boxes I make up some multi plugin extension cords and plug the items I want to run in each individual room into the 12-2 extension cords I have made and I then plug those cords into the generator. It is basically an exposed 110 line just like inside the walls of your home. My generator is located so I can plug my freezer/s directly into the generator without the use of any type of extension cord.

That is exactly what my next-door neighbor (an electrician) did this morning at their house. His father has medical needs that require electricity.

 

[Terry G.]

what i am going to do is pop the main, disconnect every thing from the walls, turn off every thing that i cant unplug, turn off my a/c, plug in my geny to the braker box (ya i have a plug in for it).

and fire it off and plug in what i need to the wall , etc..., the one thing i did hear was groung the geny to the cold water pipe...

stay safe people.

 

[devildog7]

What I have done is to pull the meter first, that way you will isolate you house then I used havy gauge wire to power the main feed. But if you dont know what you are doing leave it to the pros.

 

[wet dreams]

I shut incomming power off @ meter and again at jct box, I sure as %#&@ dont want to supply elc co. I then just hook my 220 wires off gen to hot incomming leads at box and fire it up. I watch what I have on and usually run well, small A/C in bedr, freezer, and fridg ect. My gen a 10K with 12.5 starting, had a smaller one and HAD to upgrade...Electr is no problem its no cable or internet thats the pits, mite try sat dish...WW

 

[Figfarmer]

If you install that generator into your main panel without shutting off your main breaker, and the power comes back on while the generator is running!!!!!!!........... Don't attempt it. GET AN ELECTRICIAN TO DO IT RIGHT.You need to have a special disconnect installed called a TRANSFER SWITCH. The disconnect does not allow the generator current and the main electrical current to ever meet, no matter what you do or do not do. If you absolutely MUST have power, make sure your main breaker stays off while running the generator. Plug generator into a 30 amp breaker (2 pole) and put breaker into main panel. KEEP THE MAIN BREAKER OFF!!! I am an electrical contractor and recommend that you do not attemt to do the work. It is very dangerous. (Soooo.... good luck)

 

[Figfarmer]

With a 10K generator, you could put it on a 40 amp, 2 pole breaker (10,000w divided by 240 volts equal 41 amps). But keep load to absolute minimum. Compressors and motors have high start up currents ( up to 5 times running load) . Good Luck.

 

[ghost]

It is not difficult or dangerous if done properly. I killed my maim breaker, and installed an extra breaker in the panel. In my case, I just put in a 20amp, as I only have a 3000W gen that only produces 120v. I hung a plug pig tail out of my panel that is connected to the extra 20 amp breaker. I leave this breaker off and turned my main breaker back on. If I loose power, I will open the main breaker, thus not feeding anything back to the utility, close the 20 amp breaker going to the pig tail with a plug on it, and plug the extension cord from the generator into the pig tail. Turn off you a/c breaker so it does not try and come on. You now are powering up your box and you can use your in home plugs and not have to use extension cords to everything. Be sure not to turn on too many things and over load your generator. Best of luck.

 

[Newbomb Turk]

Buy yourself a power transfer kit. Link for sources......

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=portable+generator+power+transfer+kits&btnG=Google+Search&aq=o&oq=

 

[Figfarmer]

After re-reading first post, I see he has a 5000 watt gen. No more than a 20 amp breaker for that. Sure it's easy. If you know what you are doing. After 39 years as an electrician, I've seen near death accidents by homeowners doing things as "simple" as changing a water heater element and replacing circuit breakers. (I thought the power was off!! ... I thought the black wire goes to ground!!!) Telling someone "It's not difficult to do" can get that someone killed.

 

[H2O]

run extention cords! TOO much liabiity conneting generator to panel!!

 

[Bluffer]

Get you more than a 5kw generator, thats to small & mickey mouse to run much off of.

At least a 10-15k min. esp if you want a window a/c in your bedroom.