Breaker panel with main fuses?

[zxcvbob]

Does anyone make a 100A, 125A, 150A, or 200A service panel that uses breakers for the circuits but has fusible pull-outs for the mains? I've been looking at Square-D's catalog, but I don't see anything like that.

I don't need one; I'm just curious. It would be great for being absolutely certain that you were not still connected to the grid if you needed to backfeed with a generator during an extended power outage. You wouldn't need a transfer switch; pulling out the main fuses would be a positive mechanical disconnect.

Bob

[HaHaHa]

But not foolproof, is it.

[e-mail]

[zxcvbob]

Nothing is foolproof. Fools can be very resourceful. What's your point?

Best regards, Bob

[default]

You could always do that in a separate box. The problem with using that to isolate yourself from the grid INSTEAD of a transfer switch is that it's still possible for a bone-head to forget that step, and fire up the generator with the main still in. The point of a transfer switch is that, barring a strange mechanical failure, it's not possible to connect the generator to the grid, it's either/or.

Which is more likely to get it wrong, the person running the system, or the transfer switch?

[Tekkie]

zxcvbob posted for all of us....

Geeezzzus, just get a transfer switch! Why not do something correct (right) from the git go? Why futz around with it? WHY WHY WHY???

[Pop]

| >Bob | | But not foolproof, is it. | | [e-mail]

Also not legal. Pop

[John Hines]

That a transfer panel needs to be foolproof, because lives depend on it.

Reasonably priced transfer panels exist, they use a mechanical interlock, that makes the transfer foolproof, in that you can not forget to disconnect the mains.

Yes, better fools are being invented all the time, thus the usage of a method that makes it impossible to screw up.

[zxcvbob]

Cuz then we wouldn't have anything to talk about...

Best regards, Bob

[Chris Lewis]

According to zxcvbob :

A positive mechanical disconnect, but not a foolproof _transfer_ mechanism.

The code insists on it being impossible to reverse energize the grid from the generator and vice-versa.