quote:

Originally posted by bill h:
Most codes require that you have an approved disconnect to prevent backfeeding. Backfeeding is when you feed your gen power into a line provided by the power company. This can kill workers who thought the line was dead. Or was dead when they started working on it. An approved disconnect is the only legal thing I know of for sure.

If you are a rule-breaking person, you can remove the meter and connect to the buses inside your breaker box. Store the meter where no one but you can find it, as you don't want to power up the lines with your gen.

You can also just open your main breakers, but I do not recommend it, as someone simply flipping the breakers back on at the wrong time can kill a lineman.

If you are both electrical and mechanical, you can put a breaker in your box that is connected to a cord going to your generator, allowing the gen to feed your house. This requires a mechanical interlock, which is little more than a sliding plate of 1/8 aluminum that has notches that allow the gen connect breaker to be closed only after the main breakers are opened. And vice versa. I believe these are commercially available for certain breaker panels, and might meet some codes, but most inspectors won't approve something they've never seen before. I made one for my last house, but don't know what the inspectors would have thought of it, so removed it in anticipation of selling the house.

I would not recommend doing any of this without the advice of a good electrician.

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
I have a 5KW portable generator that I use to power part of the house via a manual transfer switch. I loaned my SOB out to neighbors after Hurricane Frances - they ran extension cords from the SOB's external outlet to their appliances.

As has been mentioned, powering the house panel WITHOUT a transfer switch to disconnect the mains is both illegal and dangerous.