Interlock vs. throwing the main circuit breaker for generator powering a house

[MossRoad]

. Where are you doing the switching and placing the locks to prevent energizing the male plug prongs ?

On the breaker for that outlet most likely.

 

[LouNY]

Of the generator痴 neutral is bonded . The transfer switch is supposed to switch the neutral to avoid running current through the ground system .

Afraid you are mistaken about this.

 

[fried1765]

I'm of your same mindset, as in I backfeed my house when I need to. And I do it from a sub-panel in my garage, which feeds back to the house. So I have to kill the main breaker outside under the meter, kill the main breaker in the house panel, etc... before doing the generator hookup in the garage.

However, as I get older, and hopefully wiser, I'm leaning towards being a bit safer, and if I can take a risk out of the equation, especially since it's so cheap to do now, I should do it. Accidents happen. I forget things once in a while. It's just not worth it when I can put a lockout on it for well under a hundred bucks.

We put one on my in-law's breaker panel and wired a "real" generator outlet onto the outside of their house. It works great.

And as far as it being as simple as getting in the truck, turning the keys.....

How many times have we read about people driving right through a store? These are people that have been driving for years, yet they have a brain freeze and BOOM.

Why do drivers crash into buildings? Statistics and reasons why.

So I figure I'm not infallible. It could happen to me. So why do it anymore when the safety system is so good and so cheap?

I agree.....none of us are "infallible"!

That said: I do not have a transfer switch, and do not intend to get one!

I spent 39 years, and 30,000+ hours flying around the world in many types of aircraft without foolproof interlocks.
We used checklists for EVERYTHING!
I have a small handwritten checklist attached to my service entrance panel main breaker, and another attached to my my generator starter button.
I suppose if I forgot how to read, or became blind, it could become dangerous.

Before you ask.....I have not had a wife for 20+ years!

 

[Industrial Toys]

I used to run a pto set, shut off the main switch, open a 200 amp splitter box and clamp on some booster cable size clamps to the lugs. I was always worried, a clamp would jump off but it never did.

There are all kinds of things you can do in an emergency, but really one should make proper provisions. My Lady friends new house has a welding recept. in the garage, I have been eying, in case she needs my little Yanmar 3.7 some day. It has an unused neutral. I would probably put a pad lock on the main panel if I back fed it.

 

[MossRoad]

I agree.....none of us are "infallible"!

That said: I do not have a transfer switch, and do not intend to get one!

I spent 39 years, and 30,000+ hours flying around the world in many types of aircraft without foolproof interlocks.
We used checklists for EVERYTHING!
I have a small handwritten checklist attached to my service entrance panel main breaker, and another attached to my my generator starter button.
I suppose if I forgot how to read, or became blind, it could become dangerous.

Before you ask.....I have not had a wife for 20+ years!

Yes, checklists work IF you follow them.

What's that about old pilots and bold pilots? :laughing:

 

[Industrial Toys]

I knew a guy that had a small plane. I once handed him some "B" Connectors or the other way around and they fell to the ground. After that, the joke was always asking "Do You Have The Controls" whenever we would hand the other something.

 

[aczlan]

Afraid you are mistaken about this.

If he meant to start with IF rather than OF he would be correct.
IF the generator has neutral and ground bonded, the transfer switch is supposed to switch neutral.
If the generator does not have neutral and ground bonded together, the transfer switch is not supposed to switch neutral.

The idea being that there is only one place where the neutral and ground are connected together.

Aaron Z

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I pulled the "bottle" off the meter loop AND turned off the main, for a lot of years and then back fed through a welding outlet... Can't get any safer than that...

Power co. would hear/see my tractor powering my pto genset, stop and start walking down my drive. Once close enough to see the pulled bottle, they turned around and went about their business...

Once the power was restored, they walked in and told me, and put the bottle back on, while I unhooked the genset.

Not once did anyone care that I did that.

SR

 

[MossRoad]

You have to break a seal here to pull the meter. The utility gets kinda pissy when they find a broken seal due to so many people stealing electricity around here.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The nice thing about the backfeed approach is that all your circuits are powered. None of this, just essential stuff. Nice to be able to walk around and have all your lights working.

I have had crews drive in here, during an outage, wondering about the brightly lit place. Never, did they ask how it was connected. Those guys always ground out whatever they are working on anyway. Them getting zapped from someone livening up the line, I think is highly unlikely.