GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Tag: generator

Hook Up A Generator To Your House – GF Video

Learn how to hook up a generator your house electric panel safely in this video. We run our house with a portable generator and transfer switch when the power goes out, and here we’ll show you how to safely connect a generator to your circuit breaker panel. Watch this video, and read through the text below for more information.

Learn more about installing a generator transfer panel here and how to buy a portable generator here.

AND, watch this video about installing a generator interlock, which is another option for hooking up a generator to your house. It is a simpler option, if an interlock is available for your particular breaker panel.

IMPORTANT:
Do not run a generator in your basement or your garage. Gas engines create carbon monoxide, which will kill you. OK?

This is part of a series of emergency preparedness videos and articles we are writing.

To Hook Up A Generator, The Nuts and Bolts:

Using a portable generator is an affordable way to power the house during a power outage. You can install one of those large generators that sit on cement slab with an automatic transfer switch, but we opted for the less expensive portable generator and a manual transfer switch. I installed the transfer switch myself, but you must follow local electrical codes, and if you are the least bit hesitant, or are not experienced in working on electrical panels, please call a qualified installer.

This 6500 watt generator runs everything we need in our house

Before you go off an buy a portable generator, stop, breathe, and do some math. Generators are rated in watts. You need to know how many watts or amps all your electric powered stuff uses.

To determine how many watts of generator power you need, figure out what appliances in the house you want to power with a generator. Each appliance will list on a label somewhere how many watts or amps the appliance uses.

Use the formula if the appliance is rated in amps:

Watts = Volts x Amps

This will help figure out how many watts you need to power your home. And it will give you a good idea of how large a generator you need to buy. Most portable generators are rated by how many watts they generate.

Go around and total up how many watts your fridge uses, the freezer down in the basement, the large TV, the well pump, the sump pump. Think about all the big things that draw power in your house. (Not the Telsa, ok?)

Fridge 750 watts
HDTV 195 watts
Chest Freezer 200 watts
Furnace 400 watts
Microwave ?
Toaster ?

At its most basic, that total wattage number tells you how powerful a generator you need. Keep in mind most of these appliances will not be running all at the same time. Well pumps turn on for maybe a few minutes, furnaces run longer.

Light bulb usage is not worth calculating, I think, especially if you use LED bulbs. The power drawn is minimal.

After 12 years of regular winter power outages, I have found that I never use the full wattage of the generator I bought. If I had to do it again, I would have bought a smaller portable generator. The meters on my transfer panel barely move when powering most of my house. Something to keep in mind.

The only caveat to under sizing a generator is: with my generator, you can tell when the well pump turns on. The generator engine is definitely under load when the water is pumped. Check with your well pump installer for how many amps the well pump needs to run, that is real important. You don’t want to risk burning out your well pump with an undersized generator.

That being said, my friend has a 5k watt generator, and it runs his well pump just fine. But just check how many amps your well pump draws, OK?

If you have a whole house air conditioner, read this post about will a portable generator run whole house AC.

Figure out what circuit breakers control all the things you want to supply power to in a power outage. You will need to buy a manual transfer switch that has that many breakers. Here is one brand I like to use. (affiliate link)

And of course,

A couple of other things I have learned:

If your generator won’t start after sitting for a long time, its time to watch our replace the carburetor video

Listen to me on our podcast, GardenFork Radio, talk about how to hook up generator to a house.

Let us know below your experiences and thoughts on generators and emergency preparedness, how do you prepare for winter storms?

July 1, 2018
Will A Portable Generator Run Whole House AC?

Can a portable generator run whole house AC? I learned the answer in short order the other day. I had just installed a generator interlock switch (video here) on my sister’s electric panel, and showed her how to hook up a portable generator to the house.

Can a portable generator run whole house AC?

The power went out during a recent storm during a heat wave, and out came the portable generator, ready to hook up to the house electric panel. Soon we would have the whole house air conditioning up and running.

The proper hook up steps were followed. All breakers turned off, main breaker turned off. Interlock switch engaged. Generator cable connected from it to the weatherproof outlet. Fire up generator.

But will a portable generator run whole house AC?

The generator started up right away on the second pull. The generator used to never start easily, but thanks to the new carburetor we installed, and an excellent generator tune up it fires up nicely.

We then switched on the 240 volt AC breaker in house electric panel. The air conditioner started to fire up. Then a clicking noise started coming from the outdoor unit. We shut off the breaker, waited a few minutes, and tried again.

And it did the clicking thing again. The AC tried to start, but never got up to full speed. After this second try, we didn’t try again. We set up some fans in the house and called the air conditioner repair guys.

Portable generators are a great thing to have, they can run most of a house when the power goes out. I call them portable because they are on wheels, they aren’t those giant metal boxes that sit on a cement slab connected to a propane tank next to the garage.

I’ve talked about how to size a generator for your needs in this video. Figure out how many watts/amps you want to power in a house when the power lines go down, buy a generator that matches that number.

Problem here was I didn’t do this with this install. We already had a generator that came with the house, and it seemed sufficient to take care of our needs.

The air conditioner repair guy came out quickly. I was happy and surprised, figuring they would be busy during a heat wave. He showed me the mistake we made in sizing a generator to run a whole house air conditioner.

I hadn’t looked at the label on the side of the AC that noted the unit needed 23 amps to start up.

That’s a lot of power. All at once.

And our little 5000 watt portable generator was not going to supply that.

Even a larger portable gen unit was not going to supply that amount of amps. One would need one of the stand alone units, with the propane tank and all, to fire that AC up.

Our work around for this was to realize we did not need to cool the whole house during a power outage during the summer. We could buy one or two bedroom size window AC units to have on standby, and stay in a few of the rooms in the lower part of the house during an outage.

The portable generator we have will run a couple of small window ACs.

Learn More:

How to install a generator interlock switch

Generator Transfer Switch, How It Works

How To Hook Up A Generator To Your House

June 30, 2018
Hook Up A Generator To Your House With This Generator Interlock Kit – GF Video
A generator interlock kit is a simple and safe way to hook up a generator to your house. I just learned about this kit, and wish I had installed it in my house. I installed a generator transfer switch in my house, now I wished I did this instead. Watch the video I made below and read through for more information.

Steps To Install A Generator Interlock Kit

Circuit breaker with metal shield provides power to the panel from the generator.

First of all, I strongly suggest you hire an electrician for this project. I am showing you the steps because I myself was curious how the generator interlock worked. Sticking your hands into an electric service panel is not for the non-professional, OK?

Interlock in generator ON position. Not how it blocks the line power from being turned on.

Basically, an interlock provides a way to feed power from your generator into your electric service panel without backfeeding generator power back down the utility line. Backfeeding is bad, it means sending electricity from your generator into the electric grid, aka, the utility wires that connect to your house to the local power company. Backfeeding can kill a lineworker.

The interlock provides power to your home in a simple way. A 220 volt circuit breaker, matched to the amperage of your generator, is installed at the top of the stack of breakers that feed power to the various rooms and appliances in your house. This 220 breaker is connected, with the proper gauge wire, to a weatherproof outlet outside your home. (NOT in your basement)

The interlock kit is a metal slide, that is fabricated for the model of circuit panel you own. Interlocks are not avail for all electric panels, you will need a generator transfer panel if one is not made for your panel.

This mechanical slide does one simple thing. It keeps anyone from turning on the main power breaker (power from the utility lines) when the generator circuit breaker is turned on, and vice versa. Utility power is feeding the circuit panel, the slide is pushed down, generator feeding the panel, the slide is up. The interlock prevents both the utility power and the generator power breakers from being ‘ON’ at the same time.

Couple of Things I Learned About Generator Interlock Installation
- Site your weatherproof outlet where you can easily get to it, and have the generator near by.
- Make sure the outdoor outlet is mounted into studs or brick, you will be yanking on it to plug and unplug the power cord
- Interlocks are not available for all circuit panels.
The 10-3 wire can be run through a hole in the mortar, but the bolts holding the outdoor outlet must be set into the brick or a wood stud.

20 amp L14-20 generator cord, and the corresponding outlet on the generator.

Here is a list of items you will need for the installation, your electrician may need additional materials, talk to them before purchasing anything. This is sized for a 20 amp 220 volt generator plug & outlet, the L14-20.

Generator Interlock Kit (this is the one for our panel, yours may be different)

20 amp Two Pole Circuit Breaker (for our brand of circuit panel)

Generator Power Cord (20 amp with L14-20 plugs)

Outdoor Outlet For Generator (20 amp)

Let me know thoughts and questions, I’ll do my best to answer, thx!

Hook Up A Generator To Your House – GF Video
January 2, 2018
Probably The Best Way To Hook Up A Generator To Your House

Wandering through YouTube, I found what may be the best way to hook up a generator to your house. Its brilliantly simple and safe. Manual transfer switches require wiring inside the electric panel, generator interlocks a bit less wiring. This rig, technically called a meter mounted transfer switch, no wiring.

Image from Generlink.com

Instead of messing with your electric panel, this unit sits between your utility meter and the electric panel on the outside of your house. An electrician or your utility company has to install it, but it should only take about 30 minutes to do. And, in most cases, no electrical or building permits. How cool is that?

I have a transfer panel in my basement to hook up my generator to the house, and it isn’t the perfect solution. My post about it here. You have to run a wiring harness from the transfer panel into the main panel, choose which circuits to control, splice the wires together, its some work to do it all. This meter mounted transfer switch is much closer to ideal. More info on the unit here.

The meter mounted switch supplies power to the whole panel, and you choose which circuits to run based on the wattage of your generator and the appliances you want to use. The beauty is you can turn on and off breakers at will. With a hard wired transfer panel, you can’t change which circuits are powered. My transfer panel only has one 220 volt circuit breaker, so it limits what large appliances you can run. With this unit, you can turn off and on different appliances that draw a large amount of power.

Run your electric dryer, then turn it off and turn on the air conditioner or the well pump. Nice.

The other plus here is many people have a portable generator and plug multiple extension cords into the generator and run them into the house. You can hook up your central AC or well pump with an extension cord. So yes, at this writing, this is the best way to hook up a generator to your house.

Watch this video by Steve Maxwell, its a nice visual of how it works:

Hook Up A Generator To Your House – GF Video

December 12, 2017
Storm Preparedness – 3 Must Have Tools – GF Video

You usually think about storm preparedness just before the lights flicker out, right? To help you be more prepared, here are 3 things you should have before the power outage.

Storm Preparedness Tools I Have

Whether you have a generator or not, a solar powered radio, that also charges mobile devices, is the first thing I tell everyone to buy. I have this Eton radio that has AM, FM, and 7 pre-programmed weather stations dialed in. This radio has a USB charger plug, and you can power up devices either by turning the crank or using solar power. The solar cell can take all day to charge up a device, however, the hand crank works faster.

I have gone through many cheap LED headlamps, then I finally decided to stop buying whatever was at teh store and upgrade to a better quality one. This Eveready LED Headlamp has 7 LEDs and several functions. I used it last weekend to do some electrical work, so you can also use it for your DIY projects as well.

A quality waterproof flashlight is our 3rd must have tool, because the power goes out when its raining or snowing, not when the sun is shining. We tested this Dorcy LED Flashlight and it works great. I also like that it uses AA batteries, not larger cells. This means we can just use our existing AA batteries.

As you can see in the video, this flashlight floats and can be used a Labrador toy. This may sound like fun, but it also proved to me that your dog can chew on it and it will still be waterproof and function.

We do use a generator for power outages, but its loud and I’d rather not run it day and night. Instead, we power up our headlamps and listen to the radio. I occasionally run generator to heat the house and keep the fridge cold.

November 14, 2016
DIY Portable Generator Cart

A DIY Portable Generator Cart adds wheels to your portable generator for free. This is from a GardenFork viewer, Edward, who embraces the GF ethic of ‘use what you got’ perfectly.

He writes:

“At first glance, this might not look like much, but seeing how I looked for a wheel kit for a generator and saw
that they cost around $40 to $60, I decided to come up with my own inexpensive solution.

I remove the engine from an old mower. I only leave the lower section of the handle connected to the mower
frame (a great place to leave your extension cord). Using two tie-down ratchet straps the generator is secured to the
mower frame. Doing this, I can remove the generator easily in case I need to put it in the trunk of my car. I am planning
on adding a ply wood deck on the mower or a box style base that I can use for other projects.

This setup is extremely stable and makes moving the generator a breeze. It also keeps the generator higher off
the ground away from water and snow.”

I think this is brilliant. My portable generator has air filled tires, which makes it easy to move around rough frozen ground, but if you have a flat place, or are just rolling the portable generator out of the garage into the driveway, this is the way to go. Save some money on the generator wheel kit.

Watch our Generator Transfer Switch Install Video here.

Click Here to shop for Generators at Home Depot.

January 21, 2015
How To Pick A Generator For Home Use

How to pick a generator is the first step in hooking up a generator to your house. Here’s my experience in figuring out what kind and size portable generator you need to power your home during a power outage.

Our generator is plenty powerful to power the house.

Figuring out how what size or wattage generator to buy a is the first step in the how to pick a generator process. To determine the size of the generator you need, you have to figure out what you want to power in your house during a power outage. This power number, or watts, also will determine the size transfer panel you will need. In addition to buying a generator you will need generator transfer switch. Here is a link to our post about transfer switch installation.

Based On My Experiences…

This post is about portable generators, the kind on wheels that you pull outside, connect to your manual transfer panel, and power your home. Standby generators, the kinds that sit on a cement slab next to your house, are not covered here. This is based on my experience as a homeowner, I am not a licensed electrician.

First, buy a name brand generator. Cheap generators will cause you problems if you ever need to service it. This came back to burn a friend of mine when he needed to replace a carburetor.

Second, perform regular maintenance on your generator. I run mine for about 15 minutes every month.

Third, use gas stabilizer. Add this to all the gasoline you use for engines around the house. It will save you a lot of headaches and repairs.

Start by going through the house and think about what you and your family want to be able to use in a power outage. Then re-think about what you really need, and what you can live without.

Why? Because the average portable generator/transfer switch setup will not run everything in your house. It will run the essentials, however I think you’ll find that you don’t need to power your whole house.

Your portable generator will probably not run your 240 volt appliances. These include electric clothes dryer, electric stove, electric furnace, electric baseboards. It will run your deep freezer, refrigerator, and microwave oven and most of the lights in your house. It all depends on how the house is wired and the size of your generator transfer panel.

After making a list of of what is essential in your home, find out the amps or watts that each appliance uses. Don’t forget the furnace, well pump, etc. This is usually on a label somewhere. Now convert amps into watts with this equation:

amps x 120 = watts

I imagine you will get a number ranging from 3,000 – 6,000 unless you have lots of large TVs.

How To Pick A Generator, Watts & Amps:

A typical home can use a generator in the 3,000 to 6,000 watt range. Because you will probably not be running all the appliances at once, you don’t need a generator that exactly matches how many watts all the appliances require. The biggest draw on the generator will be the well pump, if you have one, second comes the furnace. Rarely would all of your appliances need power at once.

The question of whether to get a gas or propane powered portable generator depends on your location and preference. The small 20 gallon propane tanks are easier to deal with than carrying around gasoline, but if you run out of propane, how far do you have to drive to get more tanks? You could also get larger propane tanks, as some generators have a gas line hookup. I have a gasoline powered generator, and have been happy with it.

The downside of the gasoline generator is you can splash gas when filling the tank, and you must put gas stabilizer in the fuel. But you should treat all the gas you use for small engines with stabilizer, in my opinion.

You will need to buy and install a manual transfer panel that matches how many circuits you plan on using in the house. That is, how many of the circuit breakers on your panel need to be fed power from the generator. If you need to power 6 circuit breakers of your house panel, you will need a transfer panel with 6 breakers. Most household manual transfer panels have 6 to 10 breakers. If you have to power more than 10 circuits in a power outage, its time for a standby generator. Here is a link to our post about generator transfer panel installation.

You might think, how can I get by using only use 6 circuits in my house? You’d be surprised at how you can. Your family will be happy that they can take hot showers and charge their devices, and the food in the freezer isn’t melting.

I have a 6,500 watt portable generator, and it runs my entire house with power to spare. The generator surges when the well pump kicks in or the furnace turns on, but that’s about it. The power meters on our transfer panel rarely move past 25%.

My point here is you probably don’t need a large generator to survive a power outage, so save some money and buy a less powerful generator. My house would do fine with a 3,000 – 4,000 watt generator.
Below is video about transfer panels and generators, here is the link again to our post about transfer panels. I hope this has answered some of your questions about how to pick generator.

November 9, 2014
Connect A Generator To Your House : GardenFork Radio

Emergency Preparedness, installing a generator in your home, hooking up generator transfer panels, and how to safely hook up your generator to your house is the subject of GardenFork Radio. We want to thank Barry for his viewer mail that started us off on our Emergency Preparedness show today. more cool stuff on www.GardenFork.TV

ph0to by roganjosh

July 21, 2011
Install A Generator Transfer Switch, How to and How Not To

To safely use a generator to power your home, you can install a generator transfer switch. This can be done by a licensed professional or someone who has experience with breaker panels. We also have a generator transfer panel video and a post on how to pick a generator for home use.

NOTE: Be sure so follow local codes. We strongly suggest to hire an electrician. Use this information at your own risk.

Why You Should Install A Generator Transfer Switch

A manual generator transfer switch allows you to safely connect a generator to your circuit breaker panel. A transfer switch allow you to flip a few switches and manually disconnect your home breaker panel from the utility line power (the power coming into your house) and connect it to your generator. Hence the name, manual transfer switch.

If you don’t use a transfer switch, the power from the generator can feed back into the power line that serves your house. This is called Back-feed, and is incredibly dangerous for many reasons. The biggest being you can electrocute a line worker who may be working to restore your electric power.

Here is how the Columbia River Utility explains it:

Standby generators make life easier during power outages, but if used improperly, they can be deadly. During an outage, electricity from your generator can backfeed the power lines, killing or seriously injuring our line crews who are working to repair the lines.

A transfer switch stops backfeeding, and also makes using your generator much more convenient, allowing appliances to be operated much like when the power is turned on.

A transfer switch also protects your generator when your local utility restores power, it keeps that local power from feeding back into your generator and damaging it.

Do not fashion an extension cord to plug the generator into one of your electrical outlets. A neighbor had a friend do this for him, only problem was the guy hooked up the generator side of the cord to the 220 volt output of the generator. They plugged in this very un-smart idea into one of their 120 volt outlets and burned out all the TVs, microwave, etc in the house.

We installed a manual switch similar to these. Here is one of the better transfer switches you may want to purchase.

To Install A Generator Transfer Switch, Things to think about:

The first thing one must do is figure out how many watts and/or amps your home will require when running on generator power. Read our post on how to pick a generator here. When calculating this, figure out what essentials you need: furnace, well pump, lights, fridge, freezer. Your power needs determine how large a generator you need, and what size transfer panel you’ll need. Also pay attention to how many 220 volt and 110 volt items you have, because some transfer panels only have one 220 volt circuit breaker.

A transfer switch swaps out line power for generator power on the circuit breaker level. When selecting what circuits to be connected to the transfer panel, you need to balance the generator load. There are two meters on the transfer panel, and you want the load on each side of the transfer panel to be relatively equal. An example is you should put the furnace on one side of the panel, and the fridge on the other side. The instructions that come with the panel will go into detail about this.

Why do you need to balance the power load? The fields in the generator – those coils of wire that generate the electricity – work best when the north and south coils have equal loads.

Think about where you plan to locate the generator outdoors. Your weather proof generator plug has to be nearby. This may mean running electric cable through the basement or garage. NEVER run a generator inside a garage or basement, you will die.

To install a generator transfer switch involves working inside your circuit breaker panel. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, don’t.

Be sure to turn off the main circuit breaker before opening up the panel. Pay close attention to the directions that come with the transfer panel, many come with a video. Watch it, you’ll learn. Again, if you don’t know your way around a circuit breaker box, don’t do this. Hire an electrician.

I think the hardest part of all this is getting the bx cable from the transfer panel to connect with the breaker box. This silver armored flex cable that contains all the transfer panel wires has to go through a hole in the breaker box. Most boxes have a number of holes pre-punched, but they can still be hard to punch out. I use a cold chisel, but there are real electrician tools to open up these holes.

This whole process requires some thought and planning. Before you go out and buy a generator, calculate how much power – amps – you need. Here is a post about how to calculate the power load and buy a generator for home use.

Again, I’m not the expert here, but wanted to share some of my experiences with generators and transfer panels. Please be careful, and hire a professional if the job requires it.

Here is a video we did talking about our generator transfer panel installation

Hook Up A Generator To Your House – GF Video

January 8, 2010