generator question

At my last house I had a switch installed that would allow me to hook my generator right into the house with the circuits on it that I wanted. My problem is that the guy who built my new house brought the electric power into the basement at the closest point to the street, which is on the opposite end of the house from the garage. He later sheetrocked everything to finish off the basement, so in order to install another generator transfer switch I would have to rip out the ceiling sheetrock and pay an arm, a leg, and a firstborn. I know there is a danger of just plugging a generator into any socket of shocking whoever is working on the lines when the power comes back on, is there an easy way for me to hook my generator into a socket and prevent hurting someone downline? What if I turned off the main switch at the box?

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
What if I turned off the main switch at the box?

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That should work but is illegal! There seems to be great contriversy surrounding backfeed with your main breaker turned off.

You will also only end up with 120 volts unless you plug lines into outlets terminating on either side of the power buse in your main panel box. You will also need the double ended plugs.

Can you run an exterior line either above ground in conduit or properly buried?

Do not ask me what I do! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

<font color="blue"> the guy who built my new house brought the electric power into the basement at </font color> ...wherever he felt like it, apparantly.

I'll never understand why people pay good money to build a house and then allow this kind of stuff.

Anyway, it's lives you're playing with. Please do it right.

I am strongly considering ripping out the sheetrocked ceiling so that I can fix a number of problems like being able to put in a transfer box and also to increase the size of the water lines. I just don't plan to do it for another year or so. I guess if I need my generator I'll just run a couple extension cords.