I hope the breaker includes a lockout slide so it and the main breaker cannot be closed at the same time and it's connected to an inlet so that it's to code. It's not hard or expensive to do it right.
Wow, post from 2005. What storm was active, back then?
I've seen some thing called an Interlockkit. Put two breakers across from each other (one from grid, one from generator). the slider bar helps remember to shut off the mains when turning on the generator.
Heat with wood? That's so last century. You need an Obama account, and the government will take care of you.
Someone here recommended a mechanical 'lockout' sold just for this purpose. Goes in the breaker panel, gives you positive action as to whether generator is going IN or house power is going IN, can't accidentally do both with it. Has very visible display as to which state it's in.
I miss the very quiet, very comfortable "octopus in the basement" heat - the old convection furnace, you even added your own thermal mass, like sand on top. The flame powered a thermocouple that powered the thermostat and during power outages, our home kept toasty. Plus, the gentle air flow was constant, with none of that blowing noise and NEVER had the peaks and dips of an air blower system either. But alas, these systems were deemed too inefficient so are never installed anymore and when found are instantly ripped out.
Yes, that would be me. And others before me.
I've helped take out octopus furnace. They weren't very energy efficient. I remember when I was a little kid, my parents had the octopus replaced, and put in what was probably a 70 percenter.
This stuff works IF your breaker box allows it. My house was built in 1970. Has several main breakers that get fed to secondary breakers that feed the house outlets. No way to get juice from the dryer outlet to the rest of the house without backfeeding the grid. Not code compliant today, but many homes exist with that configuration.
Make darn sure you don't lose the common. Can make a lot of smoke on your 120V devices.
In the world of "less than perfect", sometimes you make do with what you got. I sense that you're a reasonably safe operator. Lets keep a good thought that power cuts happen when you're home, not your less skilled relatives.
This brings up an intereting point. Let's say a house has two 150 amp panels side by side. You have a 30 amp portable generator. Is there any reason you can't put a double pole breaker in each panel, together with Intelockit kit or similar from the panel manufacturer, and wire those two breakers in parallel to an inlet that you would then connect the generator to? It would be a bit odd, because if you only opened the main breaker on one panel, you could have the circuits in one panel being fed by the generator, while those in the other panel are still connected to the grid.
And if you can do it with two, you could do it with the several panels that you apparently have. If you can't do it then you'd be limited to the generator only being able to supply the circuits in one panel.
Not sure why it would not be code compliant. AFAIK, there isn't anything that says you can't have more than one panel, add a sub-panel, etc. It would be strange to do it if there is no logical reason, and the inspector might look at you like you were nuts, but that doesn't make it a code violation.
There is always going to be some exceptional case that complicates things. But at least around here, all the single family homes that I've seen and lived in have had one main panel and perhaps a subpanel for some expansion. Makes sense too, because it's easy, straightforward and less complicated. The places I've seen some of what you describe are older houses that were added onto piece meal, multi-family, major new addition, etc. It's not typical for a single family house built in the 70s. I am seeing two panels here more recently on large homes because they have more circuits than can fit in a single panel. But those are straightforward, side-by-side.
A bigger problem with the Interlockit approach I would think would be that the appropriate lockout may not be available for all panels, especially older ones.
Service input is underground. Comes up into the garage wall with the meter on the outside. Bare cable goes up into the attic and down to the breaker box on the other end of the garage.
It's an arc-fault waiting to happen. Drive a nail thru the cable and the first current limit is the breaker in the distribution system somewhere down the street. Near as I can tell from discussion with the building inspector is that it's strictly against today's code.
I looked at installing a transfer switch. Looks like I'd have to replace the meter box and put all the switching and input breakers in that. Not impossible, but more hassle and expense than I'd like.
Sounds like a split-bus panel. There are up to 6 service disconnects and one of them feeds the bottom of the panel where most of the breakers are. Some of the other service breakers may feed stoves, driers, water heaters....
The code for many years (and maybe when your house was built) requires the service disconnect to be at the nearest practical point inside the building (or outside).
You may be able to put a panel outside with a service disconnect (solves the problem above) and a generator breaker and an interlock. May still be "more hassle and expense than you'd like".
This was all about a solution looking for a problem. I got a great deal on a generator and snapped it up before I learned about all the issues to install it. Power rarely goes out here anyway.
I do not have a master breaker in the house. I do use a male to male cord to connect my generator to part of the house. I have to flip off all the breakers to keep the power from feeding the neighborhood and popping the generator breakers. I do use a surge protector on the generator and then connect my adapter cord to the house to smooth out the fluctuations of power from the generator. My expensive electronics are all on surge protectors as well.
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