Billy, First of all your home service and that service entrance panel is for 120/240 volt single phase 3 wire. Iffffffffff the generator is indeed the same, basically a single phase transformer which has 240 volts between its ends L1 to L2 and has a center tap that serves as the Neutral, YES if its connected such that its L1 and L2 feed the panels L1 and L2 (which it will if it serves a 240 volt Receptacle) 240 volt loads served from the panel youre backfeeding will indded "work"
The next thing is your generators Neutral needs to be tied to your panels Neutral if you want the 120 volt loads on BOTH legs of your panel to work when backfed from the generator. To do that by backfeeding a receptacle you would need to use a receptacle THAT HAS AN ISOLATED NEUTRAL AND I DONT MEAN THE BARE/GREEN EQUIPMENT GROUNDING CONDUCTOR. The problem is most common 240 volt 3 pole grounding receptacles are for 2 hots and an equipment grounding conductor and DO NOT have a Neutral terminal. To have 2 hots and a Neutral plus an equipment grounding conductor you would need a 4 pole receptacle !!!!!!!!!!!!!
NEXT Its my best guess that Generator you have has its Neutral bonded to its iron frame and the NEC allows it to serve plug n cord connected equipment WITH NO OTHER GROUNDING SUPPLIED TO THE GENNYS IRON FRAME. However, if you were doing this properly and wanted to use just a 2 pole transfer switch (switch the 2 hots but NOT the neutral) the service and gennys Neutral would be bonded BUTTTTTTTT you would be required TO DISCONNECT THE NEUTRAL TO IRON FRAME BOND IN THE GENERATOR
SOOOOOOOOOO my reason in explaining all this is merely to point out the problems I see youre running into in backfeeding a receptacle are that I suspect youre going to be mixing Neutral (a grounded conductor) and Equipment Grounding Conductors (a grounding conductor) AND THAT CAN CREATE A HAZARD under certain sets of circumstances
NOTE Im NOT saying this wont work, Im only saying I dont think youre correctly dealing with all the Neutral versus equipment grounding conductor issues let alone the fact that the generators Neutral would NOT be bonded to the frame as described above.
Of course removing the meter will isolate what youre doing from the utility for safety as would throwing the panles main breaker.
Again, what youre doing can work but there are Neutral versus Ground issues but since what youre doing is already a violation I guess a few more may not be of concern??
Just be careful n stay safe and it sounds like youre well aware of preventing backfeeding the utility so thats one hazard youre preventing
Best wishes n God Bless
John T Longggggg retired electrical engineer and rusty as an old nail on the NEC but do my best to help yall
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