quote:
Originally posted by safetyguy
Out of curiosity, how much did it cost for the transfer switch to be installed? I am now planning on having it added to our panel in the near future.
I am familiar with the large generators for facilities, so I take it that the transfer switch at your home would be the same kind of thing. You just turn back to PSO once you see your neighbor has lights?
With a baby coming in a week and animals at home it will just be more convenient in the long run to have a generator. I will wait to the madness has ended on purchasing a generator.
We shut off the main so it wouldn't back-feed up the line and wired into the bus bars directly. Far as I know, all you have to do is cut the main and fire up your generator if you have some way you can put a tie in to your panel.
Couldn't tell you how much a transfer switch would cost. You don't really need one, just cut off your main breaker. That's basically what a transfer switch would do. Probably what you need is a NEMA 4 outlet wired in outside the house with a female 220V plug to the main panel. If you lose power, shut off your main, plug in the genset and have at it. There may well be something else according to code I'm not aware of.
Another thing people do is run a 220V cord to their dryer outlet, cut the main and back-feed through the house wiring. I'm sure that's not code, but people will do all sorts of things in an emergency situation.
My recommendation to you, if you can swing $3000 plus installation is go with one of the natural gas-powered generators. You would likely appreciate not having to re-fill the fuel tank every few hours. I'd guess installation for that would be about $2000 to $3000.
I originally bought my generator to have portable power in the pits when I was still racing cars. It's got a 1/2 gal tank which lasts about three hours. Now that I have it back, I'm thinking about mounting a three or four gallon tank on it.
Another helpful idea is to have several coolers available for winter power outages. Food will keep in a cooler outside for days so long as the air temp is staying below 40. Keep frozen goods in a plastic tub if it's below freezing out. Not having to run your refrigerator off a generator will save some amps for other household uses.