Generator running a furnace??

I have a 6000 watt generator. Is this big enough to run an electric furnace for winter heat if needed? If so how would one hook that up?
I have an outside wood stove that I hooked up last winter to run the fan on the motor of it. Heated this place well. But wondered about going to the Electric furnace ??

You"d need to install the extra sub panel with the input for the generator, which allows the generator to power the house in lieu of power from the transmission lines. This has to be wired in correctly or you risk a fire. I"d recommend getting a qualified electrician to do this work.

The generator can then power a few things, but not many. You"ll need to do a load calc to see which items you can power via the generator (e.g., refrigerator, furnace, etc.)

Electric furnace. Are you talking an electric heating element? I didn't know there were any of those left. They might eat up more than 6kw.

If it's an oil or gas burner that requires electricity for the burner and blower or circulating pump, yes 6kw of running capacity would do it just fine and maybe keep your fridge cold and run a few lights. (Google on Generac or another generator manufacturer. Most of their sites you can find a table of typical electrical loads for various appliances.) Just watch the rating on your genset. Is 6000 the running wattage or the peak wattage?

As far as how to hook it up, I used to live in a neighborhood, where folks had cords rigged to their furnace allow them to hook just the furnace to a generator. But those were sloppy and dangerous hookups.

The safest way to do it is like MichaelNEIowa said, and have a transfer switch or lockout installed at your entrance panel. 6kw isn't real big as generators go, but that way you can pick and choose a balance between circuits you want to have available to rough it through an emergency, and what the generator can handle.

Larry, What kind of electric furnace do you have? There is no way a 6000 watt genny would run my electric furnace. I have a 200 amp electrical service and the furnace is tied to 150 of it!

Nothing wrong with a cord and plug feed for a furnace.Just use a 20 amp rated outlet and good plug.My water pump is set up this way.

"Transfer switch" it mounts next to your panel and puts all the breakers or the ones needed in series with its breakers.

You plug into it from outside and flip the switches. Home depot sells a nice set up for this application. By installing this you don't have cords running in threw doors and it is "filtered A/C as opposed to non coming from the generator.

The non will have spikes which will hurt electronics like some new furnaces have.

It cost me for the switch- external plug and 40 ft extension cord $600.00. The cord has to be rated for 50 amp as well as its ends so it will cost $200.00 by it self. [i had to make it]

A 40 ft cords keeps the noise of the generator away from the house.

I have a 6000 watt 8500 surge generator and it will run the entire house hold electric/gas furnace as well as the A/C in the summer.

We havn't tried hair dryers or things like that, but all the important things it handles with ease. The switch from Home Depot has to meters built into it so that you can see how much power your pulling in each breaker bank so that you keep it balanced.

I was just going to runs cords like your talking untill this gentelmen gave me 5 mins of education on filtered and non filtered A/C.

I didn't want to kill the tv or computer and i now run both off the transfer switch with out fear of damage or power problem.

Sorry for being long winded but i hope this helps.

That 6000 watt genny is going to put out about 27 amps on 220 volts.

Check your furance specks and see what amperage it uses.

I'm guessing it is closer to 60 amp draw on your furnace.

If you have no specks check what size breaker is feeding it now.

Gary

If you dont know what the furnace draws for current better call someone who does as 6000 watts wont run an electric furnace.

My 5500 watter runs mine just fine. I assume you are talking about an oil fired furnace that uses electricity for the oil burner and blower. If the furnace has electric resistance heating elements (no one here does since the electricity is so expensive) then you need 12 to 20 kilowatts, depending on the size of the furnace. Your 6000 watter woundn't begin to cut it then.

Using the weenie little emergency power panel is a half backed mickey mouse solution. Although it's miles ahead of the deviates who back feed into stove or worse yet welder receptacles.
Here's a way to run what ever amount of laod your generator will handle what ever the size. You get to keep all the lighting circuits in your home too which you loose with the litle panels.
Economical and simple to install too.
http://www.reliancecontrols.com/ProductDetail.aspx?TWB2012DR

A home electric furnace runs about 5KW per heating element. Forced air electric furnces use one to six heating elements.
So if your furnce is a typical 20KW unit, you generator is going to make a bad sound, then you will be standing in the dark after you close the breaker.
Better to get a non electric 23000 btu kerosene heater for standby warmth. You will burn less fuel. A generator running an electric heating element uses 3 gallons of fuel to give one gallon of heat.

Electric furnances and electric heating elements re-trofitted into furnace air plenums are making a comeback here.
Short of going to a heat pump. Around here an electric furnce is the cheapest heat on the market.
Nothing to fail like some of those fussy high efficiency gas or oil furnaces either. No chimneyand fume concerns either.

All things considered, insulation, electric rates, etc, This is a regular air handling unit with heat coils in it plus air. I would rather have electric heat than anything. Mount anywhere, on its side, upside down , right side up, no mess, clean air. Don'r know where you are but I think they're big in certain parts of the country.

James, can you pass on this knowledge of filtered/non-filtered AC. I looked at the Home Depot web site, and the metered transfer switch looks nice, but I couldn't find any info on the filtered AC.

Thanks,
Paul

Simple answer is NO way. Your furnace will take at least twice what you have BTDT and you need a lot bigger gen. to do it
Hobby farm

Just wanted to say thanks B&D for the the info on the transfer panel. I have been looking for an economical and safer solution to backfeeding the panel. Looks like for 350 bucks that panel could really be the ticket. I already have a panel very similar to this that feeds the house and garages installed but without the transfer option. Wish I knew about this 8 years ago when I put in my new service.

I also need to check out my old Winpower alternator for the neutral/ground bond.

Best thing to do is keep in mind this is a temporary emergency and bite the bullet.
Run only what is absolutely necessary to keep water pipes from freezing, frozen food from thawing, light to see what you're doing and heat from milkhouse heaters in a room or 2.
You'll generate some heat just running around turning things off and on!

If you use a plug in place of a lace of a hard-wired connection on a day to day basis, and pull that plug to run a line from a generator, I'd agree. But back to the backfeedin' issue, I've seen some (the ones I was referrin' to) with a plug wired in parallel, and that ain't good.

Backfeed into the stove receptacle??
That's outrageous.......
I find the dryer receptacle in the basement to be much more handy.

Stove is 50 amps vs. the 30 amp stove dryer.

The problem with the complete service transfer switch the majority of people dont know how to use them, they undersize the gennie then turn to much on like running a 18kw electric furnace with a 5000w gennie than call me when it doesnt work.

Imagine now these people who can't read the sign on the panel that says. "Switch off stove and clothes dryer when using generator."
Now give these people a double male ended plug and have them plug in thier generator.

The litle mickey mouse panels don't allow either for changes from or to a small, medium or large generator.
Why use a mickey mouse panel with six or eight circuits? When it's only two or three double pole breakers in the entire 42 circuit panel that are going to trip a small generator?
The mickey mouse panel saves no money in installation either.