Quoting Removed, click Modern View to see Right. However, a transfer switch is designed that when ordinarily and properly operated, no "hot" parts are exposed, and you could switch it 30 times a day without endangering yourself or anyone else.
"Pulling the main breaker" in most modern panels is impossible without removing one or more screws that hold it in and then attempting to bend a pair of #3AWG copper, or #2AWG aluminum conductors in a 100A panel, and no, it isn't easy, or good for the connections. Service entrance wire that size isn't made to handle repeated bending. In a 200A panel, even if you get the main out, you just aren't gonna be able to put it back without grabbing that breaker on 'five sides' with the strength of a gorilla. And when the grid comes back on, you are fighting with wire that doesn't want to bend and is "live", even with the breaker "off". What do you do when one of those now live wires wiggle out of it's connection as you attempt to wrestle it back into place? This is a perfect example of things that work in theory but don't work in practice. Never, ever pull the main breaker.
The only time a main breaker is removed, is if it fails and your electrician does the work, safely. In 40 years, I've never replaced a home service main breaker without replacing the panel and service cable, and only once when the main breaker had failed (after getting rain water into it due to a poor seal on the meter top hub).
As a word of warning should "something go wrong" when Joe Sixpack insists on pulling a main breaker: not every meter base will cut power when the meter is pulled. Most services above 200A use CT's for metering, so pulling the meter DOES NOT cut the power beyond it. Some meter sockets have bypass mechanisms in them. NEVER assume that pulling a meter will kill a service. If you still have fuses, even the fuses marked "Main" may not cut all power in, or out. You still need a transfer switch to safely power your place with a generator.
For the record: I have 2 backup generators (always carry a spare), AND a UL listed transfer switch, because even being an electrician who could easily and safely power my own place all by itself without back-feeding any part of the grid, I want it both EASY and SAFE enough that my dog could work it without making sparks. Granted, he's a smart dog, but I also want it easy and safe enough that my wife, kids, or any other future tenant here could make it work when needed, and without putting anyone in danger of electrocution.
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