Which 20kw whole house generator would you recommend and why

[pclausen]

I did go buy a tube of oxide inhibitor 1st thing this morning and used it on all aluminum connections. If I had read this forum before starting, I would have used it on the copper connections as well.

So I started with pulling the old 4/0 SER from the meter base. Here it is after freeing it from the lugs. Meter is back on so that the secondary 200A panel could have power so that I could see what I was doing on the inside.

Turns out I wasn't able to pull the cable all the way into the basement due to the hole not being large enough.

After spending some quality time with a chisel and a hole saw, I was finally able to pull the cable into the basement. I then prepped the new cable to match the old one.

Pushed back into the hot meter base, being careful not to touch any live wires.

Meter base all done and ready to be covered back up again.

I then terminated the utility supply to the transfer switch, and ran the 2nd 4/0 SER cable to the 200A panel.

Closeup of the completed cabling in the transfer switch. Note I got my bushings on all 3 cable entrances now.

All covers back on.

 

[pclausen]

The only remaining issue now is to get the generator working... I read the fine print on Norwall's website, and it looks like I need to take up the concealed damage with the trucking company.

I did notice the following mark, indicating the generator appears to have been dropped on its end at some point during shipment. So the whole generator moved about 2" on its rubber mounts, likely causing all kinds of damage to the front and rear cooling fans and who knows what else...

 

[spruce232]

panel needs a seperate ground bar now. you need to remove those ground wires from the neutral bar.

 

[dstig1]

Note I got my bushings on all 3 cable entrances now.

Good boy! :dance1:

I'm amazed you could pull the meter without a call to the power co (and thus an inspection).

 

[pclausen]

panel needs a separate ground bar now. you need to remove those ground wires from the neutral bar.

I was curious about that. The installation instructions that came with the transfer switch said to disconnect the bonding strap between the neutral bar and ground bar. Well, the Cutler & Hammer panels I'm working with don't have separate bars, they just have a bonding lug that goes from the neutral bar to the chassis. I removed it from the sub-panel (yellow arrow in that cabinet) and left it in place in the transfer switch (yellow arrow in that cabinet) as seen in the pic below.

I then added a new ground wire from the transfer switch to the sub-panel. This is indicated by the green arrows.

I left the original ground to the sub-panel, indicated by the red arrows. Should I remove this and instead connect it to the transfer switch ground bar?

I think what you're saying is that I need to get a ground bar and some insulators and mount it into the panel, then move all the grounds from all the circuits onto it, and then tie it back the the ground bar in the transfer switch via the green arrow grounding cable?

The ground from the generator goes to the transfer switch and is indicated by the blue arrow. The transfer switch also has its own 8' grounding electrode (separate from the grounding electrode(s) installed for the house). This is how the original generator was connected.

I have obviously not had a chance to run the sub-panel off the generator yet, but I did take a number of voltage measurements with a lot of loads running in the panel, and I did not detect any voltage potential between ground and neutral.

As stated previously, the house was built in 1986. Did the rules changes since then as far as panels needing separate neutral and ground bars? My house, built is 1997, also has a pair of Cutler Hammer 200A panels, and they do have separate neutral and ground bars as seen here.

It sounds like this is the direction I need to go, so I'll see if I can chase down a ground bar and isolation stand offs today.

Should I be concerned with the other 200A panel as well since I routed 14 of it's circuits to the panel on the generator?

 

[pclausen]

I'm amazed you could pull the meter without a call to the power co (and thus an inspection).

They are pretty laid back in my neck of the woods. When the estimator came out to look at the previous installation with the 15kw generator, he said that when they do installs, they typically are able to just carry out the work, including tying into the meter base, without calling the power company. My previous experience with breaking the meter base seal on my own meter base during a winter power outage to hook up an PTO generator seemed to support that. The next time they came to read the meter, they put on a new seal, but there were no other repercussions or follow ups.

 

[pclausen]

Did a quick search at Lowe's, and it looks this could work for a separate ground bar:

Shop Siemens Insulated Neutral Kit at Lowes.com

That's the only one I could find that comes with insulation stand offs. All the "grounding bars" they carry are not insulated.

 

[aczlan]

Did a quick search at Lowe's, and it looks this could work for a separate ground bar:
Shop Siemens Insulated Neutral Kit at Lowes.com
That's the only one I could find that comes with insulation stand offs. All the "grounding bars" they carry are not insulated.

That is correct, your ground is not insulated, your neutral should be.
Newer NEC rules want them separated in all but one location (in your case, the transfer switch).

Aaron Z

 

[pclausen]

Got it. I'll pick up 2 non-insulated grounding bars like these to do both panels:

Shop Eaton Cutler-Hammer Load Center Ground Bar Kit at Lowes.com

I'll then move the ground wire currently going from the transfer switch ground bar to the panel neutral bar, to the newly installed ground bar. I'll also move the ground wire from the grounding electrode from the neutral bar to the ground bar. I'll repeat for the 2nd panel.

Finally, I'll run a separate ground wire from the transfer switch grounding bar to the house grounding electrode.

That will hopefully satisfy the newer NEC rules.

 

[hr3]

Wow slow down.. you do not need to separate your grounds and neutrals Everything you have there is on the same backer board and is considered you service panels.. If your panels were remote from your transfer switch location then yes but not with what you have,,

Your bonding of the ground as you have it is fine,, do not remove the jumper in the transfer switch that comes from the neutral to the case..

Do disconect the ground you have going to a ground rod from your generator,,, this is wrong...your ground coming from the generator to your main switch and then back to your service ground is all you want...