"If those main panels on the outside of the house are not safe then I would have never received a certificate of occupancy and would have failed the final building inspection."
brin, I went to
Internet Archive: Free Download: Georgia Electrical Code and downloaded the PDF file. In it I found the following under Optional Standby Systems. I won't print out everything, but I think the following covers the pertinent points.
(I tried to not leave anything out).
Transfer equipment shall be suitable for the intended use and designed and installed so as to prevent the inadvertent interconnection of normal and alternate
sources of supply in any operation of the transfer equipment.
Transfer equipment shall be required for all standby
systems subject to the provisions of this article and for
which an electric-utility supply is either the normal or
standby source.
Exception: Temporary connection of a portable generator
without transfer equipment shall be permitted where conditions of maintenance and supervision ensure that only qualified persons service the installation and where the normal supply is physically isolated by a lockable disconnect means or by disconnection of the normal supply conductors.
Transfer Switch. An automatic or nonautomatic device for
transferring one or more load conductor connections from
one power source to another.
Qualified Person. One who has skills and knowledge related to the construction and operation of the electrical
equipment and installations and has received safety training on the hazards involved.
FPN: Refer to NFPA 70E-2004, Standard for Electrical
Safety in the Workplace, for electrical safety training
requirements.
So it appears you have two choices...a real transfer switch or equipment and personal that meets the requirement of the "Exception" rule. You're not using a transfer switch so you would by default fall under the "Exception" rule. This is pretty specific in that it states first and foremost that only a Qualified Person is allowed to operate the lockable disconnect or disconnect the normal supply conductors. From your post, I suspect you are a home owner, and not an electrician let alone one who has also received safety training on the hazards involved per NFPA 70E-2004 and hence legally able to operate your system. I would also suspect your electrician was not fully cognizant of the code requirements for the temporary connection of a portable generator. Ditto for the inspector who did the final building inspection.
Should the worst case scenario come to happen, you may be in for a heap of trouble and none of it your fault, since it appears you went the distance and hired an electrician to do the work. Lots of people get caught up in litigation not because they did anything wrong or are a fault. You know the old saying about when the s**t hits the fan, everybody around gets covered, eh!
"If we have reached the point in this country where we can't trust electrical panel boxes and the switches in them that are installed when we build our houses then we are indeed in trouble."
I've seen in several stores, recall notices for household breakers. Some were just plain bad, some were counterfeit. Google "recall of breakers" and lots of information comes up. It is scary! You can't even really trust a breaker to open up on an overload every time. Some don't. I know of one electrician who prefer fuses over breakers for protection of equipment for just this reason, and I have personally seen several fuses that were manufactured wrong in that their actual rating was a LOT higher than their marked rating. (non failed ones from the batch were tested).
"As far as someone being so stupid as to not know to flip the switches off before they fire up their generator then we should not let anyone drive a car or truck or fly airplanes etc."
Sad to say, there ARE people that stupid....I've had the "luck"
of working with some of them. There are also people with Alzheimer's Disease. And people with bad memories. And what about the ones who would do it deliberately? And sometimes, Brain Farts happen!
Well, a long winded post for sure!
I hope it sheds some light on the topic!
