[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] This is kind of a difficult concept to explain but I'll give it a shot.... [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] You can take an ordinary house panel with say, 36 breaker spaces and turn it into a Normal-Emergency setup by cutting a piece out of the main bus bar such that you have a group of breakers near the bottom that are now isolated. You jump the break in the bus by using a 50 AAMP 240V breaker on the top bus to feed the top side of a double throw switch, and THEN another 50A 240V breaker that is fed from the center of the double throw switch puts the current back ONTO the lower bus section. You gang up the critical loads on the lower section of the panel. The gen set feeds the bottom of the double throw switch. That way, there is no possibility of back-feeding while on Emergency power, and the circuits that are connected to the top section of the panel can stay connected to utility power and will tell you when the power is back on. Nothing more embarassing than burning fuel only to find out the power supply has been restored. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]
That's not hard to understand[img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] It makes sense.
My sister lost power a few weeks ago. They have a generator. But, it is like 11 or 12hp, and she had never started anything that bug. She is pretty petite, and could barely pull the rope start. My brother in law was out of town on business. She had a neighbor come over and start the thing. Then, she thought the power was back on a few hours later and shut it off. The power was not on, and she had two unhappy kids(3&5) in the dark. She could not get ahold of the neighbor agian. She called me to figure out how to start it(I'm almost two hours away). It was hard to describe how to get a ggod pull on that rope! Fortunately fo me, I had taught a couple other volunteer Fire Fighters, women of similar build to my sister who also had never started power equipment, how to start generators, saw, floto-pumps, ect. From that expierience, I was able to walk my sister through it. She was pretty proud when she got it fired back up again!
I can STILL remember the very first time I got a hand crank John Deere going by myself as a kid. What a feeling! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
If you had to have an inspection they'd nail you on a listing violation. A listing violation is when you modify or use a listed item in a way that it was not tested for. The way to do it would be to install a pass through main panel and then run to a sub panel. Use a main breaker in the sub and use the sub for your essential circuits.
[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] You're right, it would be the usual "bootleg" setup from an inspection standpoint. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] When I did the new electrical in our 100 year-old house this past year I went with a 200A Distribution panel with a main in it, and then four breakers to feed the subs. One sub is a "critical loads" panel, and the normal power feeder to that panel passes thru a double-throw with provision for the gen set WHEN such a purchase finally creeps it's way to the top of the priority list around here. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] It will probably be just after we have a four-day ice storm outage. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
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