Tdog
Platinum Member
I went from almost no generator experience to living off one since Katrina. Still no sign of power on my road.
My neighbor's brother from Florida gave us this idea for hooking up generators - - if you have an electric dryer. 1st throw the master switch off, and all the circuit breakers too. Then get a dryer cord & splice it onto an appropriate length of 10-3 indoor-outdoor wire. The other end of the 10-3 wire plugs into the 120/240 v - 30amp outlet on the generator. Plug the dryer cord into its outlet. Start the generator, turn on the electric dryer circuit breaker. That will back-feed power to the box - - then flip on whatever circuits you want. You have to play musical chairs with the different circuits to make sure you don't exceed the capacity of your generator.
I have a 8500/5500 watt unit that will handle my refrig-freezer, my well [thank goodness] & a few fans & lights. If I want hot water, I turn off most everything else & run the hot water heater for ~~15 min. & that is plenty enough for a couple of showers.
I lost the contents of my freezer & the 2-3 days after the storm before I found a generator & got it connected, so I'm not running it anymore.
Hope this makes sense to you - - works for me.
My neighbor bought a 10000 btu room AC & put it in his bedroom. He runs that at night. Not really an option for us, since portions of our ceilings have collapsed & we'd be air conditioning the attic.
At least our place is still habitable.
The good news is my electric bill should be minimal for September. The flip side of that is that I spent $140 putting gasoline in gas cans this morning. Should last a while.
Cheers,
Jack
My neighbor's brother from Florida gave us this idea for hooking up generators - - if you have an electric dryer. 1st throw the master switch off, and all the circuit breakers too. Then get a dryer cord & splice it onto an appropriate length of 10-3 indoor-outdoor wire. The other end of the 10-3 wire plugs into the 120/240 v - 30amp outlet on the generator. Plug the dryer cord into its outlet. Start the generator, turn on the electric dryer circuit breaker. That will back-feed power to the box - - then flip on whatever circuits you want. You have to play musical chairs with the different circuits to make sure you don't exceed the capacity of your generator.
I have a 8500/5500 watt unit that will handle my refrig-freezer, my well [thank goodness] & a few fans & lights. If I want hot water, I turn off most everything else & run the hot water heater for ~~15 min. & that is plenty enough for a couple of showers.
I lost the contents of my freezer & the 2-3 days after the storm before I found a generator & got it connected, so I'm not running it anymore.
Hope this makes sense to you - - works for me.
My neighbor bought a 10000 btu room AC & put it in his bedroom. He runs that at night. Not really an option for us, since portions of our ceilings have collapsed & we'd be air conditioning the attic.
At least our place is still habitable.
The good news is my electric bill should be minimal for September. The flip side of that is that I spent $140 putting gasoline in gas cans this morning. Should last a while.
Cheers,
Jack