Hey guys. Has anyone ever bought a power transfer switch to run a portable generator? It seems we lose power a few times a year for an extended period, 8 hours or better. I have a decent portable gen but to run it by code the way I would like it looks as if one of these are needed. My brother in law is an electrician so that's who will install it for me so no problem there. All I need is something like this, does this look to be a good unit? Suggestions are certainly welcome.

Wish I could help Rick, gotta love the weather we get.

I tell ya Randy this last one was a good one. I freakin hate ice storms.

yep, we did not get as much as they originally forcast, but it still sucks. A thick crust of ice on top of the snow we already had. The kids loved sleding down our south hill 500 ft to the neighbors yard.

We have a propane tank for our heat, gas logs, etc. The gas logs work without electicity, so we can stay warm..doesn't help for the fridge, deepfreeze, and other stuff...

Just have a pigtail cord made up so that one end connects to the generator outlet plug and the other end connects into the house dryer electrical plug ... first and foremost is to turn off and leave off the main breaker for the house and then turn off all individual breakers for the house, plug in the generator to the dryer plug and depending on the output of the generator turn on the individual breakers for the circuit you want to use in the house.

Folks down here have been doing this for years ... and years.

I've only seen the ag ones they use on farms... where you put the gennie on the tractor PTO, plug it in, and turn the giant rotary knob from hydro to gennie.

Those ones work well, I can't see why the little house ones wouldn't...?

Bren R.

You never said how big a generator you have. The switch you mentioned should work fine as long as you only have 6 circuits that you want to power and none are over 20 amp. Furnace, fridge, freezer, TV/stereo, well pump, sump pump, coffee maker, stove.

Pig tails work fine but power companies tend to frown on them due to the risk of backfeeding the main, and they may not be legal in some areas. For a little more money you can install a whole house transfer switch (manual or automatic). They install between the meter and main breaker panel and switch between grid or generator power. That way you can run anything in the house as long as you do not exceed the generator capacity.

The gen I have is 4000 watts, hence the 6 circuit and not a whole house. The main things I want to power are the furnace some lights the tv, fridge and freezer.

BTW the local electric co. does indeed (as does local codes) frown on the pig tail way of doing this. I know it works, I have done it, but I would rather keep it to code.

I have a small breaker panel hanging off the main panel, which controls power to the critical circuits (freezer, well pump, HT, and a light bulb somewhere ;)). I haven't looked for a while but I think there are interlocked breakers, one going to the main panel and one going to the genny. Haven't actually got around to wiring in a generator or anything yet.

At the Axiom factory there is a ratty old pickup truck chassis & engine sitting outside the shipping door. Ian built a big generator into the chassis, powered by the truck engine, which IIRC auto-starts during a power failure. It's one of the coolest things I have ever seen.