Generator power question

I am putting a new service panel in my houose and will be running a new wire to the pole (switching from overhead to underground)...
as winter approaches i would like to be able to use a portable generator to run most of the house and most importantly the outdoor wood furnace and various circulator pumps.

does anyone have a manual transfer switch in the 50 amp, 10kw or so range? if so what brand?
i have also seen service panels that are "generator ready" and already have a transfer switch - does anyone have one of those...

any tips for this whole process?

thanks
steve

I bought a reliance brand transfer switch for my house, not sure of the amps. I use a 6500 watt surge, 5000 watt run generator, I have 6 circuts wired in, all 110, it won't run anything 220. My furnace is on one circut by its self, but all the other plugins as well as the lights can by used. I used it one time for 10 hours and loved it. It cost $300. at orschlen farm and home, got if off e-bay for $165 including shipping.

northern tool and equipment has a pretty good selection of these. I suspect you would have to know what you were looking for. I am looking to do something similar in the future, but it will require panel replacement.

www.northerntool.com

Aaron

MOST of the big brand panels(Siemens,Cutler Hammer, Square D) make a transfer switch that works on the breakers in your panel. What you do is mount a sub-panel. In this sub-panel you put the circuits that you want to work on a generator, such as the refrigerator, water heater, well pump, etc.

Now for the wiring part. What is done is you take a 2 pole 100 amp breaker and feed your new 100 amp subpanel out of your main panel. At the sub-panel the #3 copper wire from the 100 amp breaker in the main panelis attached to another 100 amp breaker in the sub-panel. Basically you are feeding this breaker backwards, since the power comes in on the screw terminals and out on the clips to the bus bar. Now in the correct location as noted on the generator transfer switch instructions you place the second breaker that this transfer switch/handle tie, ties in to. Now from the generator location you run your cord or wire to an outlet that the generator runs into.

What the handle tie does is only enable one of these breakers to be in the on position at a time. When the generator breaker is on the breaker that connects the sub-panel to the main panel is off, so it doesn't backfeed the power lines. When the breaker that ties the panels together is on it forces the breaker that goes to the generator plug or cord to be off, so you cannot backfeed the generator. It is really asimple affair, and if using all 100 Amp rated equipment for the generator/sub-panel, you will be set up for a pretty good sized generator.

The problem with this switch setup is that it is manual only. However it is relatively inexpensive to do compared to an automatic transfer switch.

I used a 7000 watt generator for 4 days two years ago and running an electric water heater, well pump, range, and all the lights and refrigerator I only tripped the breaker on the generator once. All you have to do is be a little selective on what you use and when. Sorry for being so long winded

I bought a 200 amp manual transfer switch many years ago. The people selling it had no idea what it was and had it priced at twenty bucks. I grabbed it for sure.

My whole yard runs through this switch, from the meter through the switch and into a splitter trough. Each building has a seperate line running from the trough. Its a double throw switch so when I run the generator, there is no feed back to the main line. The generator feed comes in to the bottom set of poles, the line feed on the top and the trough gets fed from the center poles of the switch.

I had a new box put in designed for this purpose. There is a big plug for the power from the generator. It makes you flip a switch before engaging the generator power. I can run anything in the house that I want. (not all at the same time as the generator is only 7500 wats)

Ronk makes one that is competitive.

The transfer method greg describes is the much cheaper way to go, however just cuz its cheap dont mean it dont work just fine and fulfills its purpose that you cant somehow accidentally have your genset backfeed the utilitys transformer i.e. ONLY ONE source (Utility or genset) is connected at a time and the genset cant backfeed the utility.

Nowwwwwwww since this is ONLY A TWO POLE TRANSFER SWITCH dont forget at/in the genset YOU MUST SEVER ANY FRAME TO NEUTRAL BOND!!!!!!!! and since you do that (that way you dont have to use a 3 pole x fer switch and also switch the Neutral) you carry the regular Equipment GroundING Conductor out and bond it to the gensets frame, same as it bonds to any other non current carrying metallic enclosure (conduit, junction boxes, cases, frames etc etc)

John T Too long retired Electrical Engineer

John T and Greg listed a very good inexpensive way,but what may be avalable in your area is GenerLink@ which the electric Co.installs on your Meterbase and is fully automatic when you hook your Generator up or on.The only trouble with it is 7500W max Gen.I have 6 200-200 double throw disconects plus 1 100-100(rental house) like what Greg was talking about because all the farms and rental properties have full power to everything. If your Elec.Co.has the GenerLink,it might be the best bet,but PLEASE do put something in.

I know that this post has been answered but I know on a prevoius farm, we had a pole top switch, that you switched manually, and the generator(15kw) would run the whole farm. Seems more convienent than a sub panel which only allows a few circuits to be used, especially given that you want to run most of the house. Just sayin.

Good to know somebody wants to #1 have a standby generator before the outage. #2 Wiring the genset in properly. Instead of running extension cords in through door or window and tripping over them in the dark.
#3 CO drifting in through the door or window can be fatal too.
Those knobs back feeding through a three prong welding receptacle have no clue what so ever. Using the electrical service grounding system as a current carrying conductors........duh.

http://www.reliancecontrols.com/ProductDetail.aspx?TWB2012DR