Electric Code Question

I don't know what an inspector would think but I don't belive that it violates any code.

Dusty

John T retired EE

What I do, when there is a power loss is to unplug the electronic air filter, shut off the switch at the furnace, take my double male extension cord and run it off the generator.

Life is simple, even if you follow most of the rules. Of course the extension cord is the major flaw in the system but you can't have everything.

What kind of electronic air filter do you have? I mean how does it work? If it's one of those ionizing types like Honeywell makes, or used to make, you should do some research on it to see if it is safe to use. My wife read that the ozone produced in the ionization of the dust particles was far more harmful to your respiratory system than the dust itself would be. This was devastating news to my wife. Her mother, who was incapacitated by COPD (which used to be called emphysema) for the last few years of her life before it killed her, spent money that she could ill afford on a new heating system with a then state-of-the-art ionizing electronic air filtration system in the hope that it would provide her some measure of relief from what was essentially a constant state of near suffocation. It nearly drove my wife to distraction to learn that rather than improving her mother's situation, the air filter may have worsened a situation that already seemed as if it could hardly be any worse.

All the best, Stan

Gerald J.

Billy

Why are people so d*mb *ss tight wad cheap?

Just install a proper generator transfer switch. Those little rinky d*nk 4,6,8, emergency power sub panels are a high $$$ joke. >Link
Link href="http://www.reliancecontrols.com/ProductDetail.aspx?TTV2012D">Link
http://www.reliancecontrols.com/ProductDetail.aspx?TRB1212DR or the 200 amp feed through version

Feel better now?

Being required to do something that makes no sense to us often makes us wonder if there isn't a simpler, or better, or, yes, cheaper way it could be done. Nobody would ever be able to convince me that every item of every code is totally reasonable. Members of the same species who write laws also write building codes. I know it's somewhat different in Canada but down here we're up to our a$$es in bad laws (i.e. I've got 60 days to find and resolve an error in the bank's favor but the bank has no time limit on dealing with an error in my favor.) If you read the newspaper (or watch the news if, like most Americans nowadays, you can't read too well) you'll certainly agree that we have plenty of reason to be skeptical of authority. Those who question the rules are, in my (never been accused of being) humble opinion, the ones who still show signs of brain function.

When someone thinks a rule doesn't seem to make sense and asks why they can't do it some other way instead, that's reasonable curiosity. When the good sense of the rule is explained to them but they don't agree with it and insist on doing it their own way, or they do agree with it but refuse to follow it for selfish reasons, THEN they're on a track that begins at stupid and ends at criminal.

You're a good guy, B&D. Your advice and information is always first-rate. The people who you should be exasperated with aren't the ones who ask the questions, but the ones who advise breaking sensible rules. I've noticed, though, that this site is sort of self policing. If someone wants to advise doing things in a sneaky or slipshod way, sometimes they're taken to task for it, but usually nobody says anything and that person is simply remembered as someone who gives that kind of advice. Contributors to Tool Talk establish reputations for themselves, whether they know it or not. Some are admired for their patience and the evenness of their temperaments (that wouldn't be you or me,) some for the depth of their expertise, some for the precision of their advice, some for their humor, etc. Those who are insulting, touchy, make trouble, or offer bad advice are known, too.

All the best, Stan

P.S. I'm still waiting for those bears you said you'd send me.

Medical research has long held that death was nature's way of telling us to slow down, but it has now been conclusively demonstrated that it also prevents c.r.s.

If you could add wiring after the circuit breakers then there would be no way to isolate the furnace from potentialy using more than one power source. This is a requirement for safety too the unit as well as the repairman.

I'm pretty sure, I'm not up on current codes, that a dedicated unit auto transfer switch could used at the unit and still meet code but that would be a waste of money under normal conditions as it would be cheaper to add the auto tranfer switch at the load center and feed the generator from there. Then you could use your entire existing load center circuits.

My point being your not going to get by the auto transfer switch that code requires with generator use.

T_Bone

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