Code question on generator grounding

Posted by Caesar Romano on September 8, 2008, 2:11 pm

On Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:55:34 -0400, NoSpam@aol.com wrote Re Re: Code
question on generator grounding:

>I did this in my previous house before interlock kits were available. It
>was not hard and worked very well. After checking the cost of the kits
>(ridiculous!) I plan to do it again, esp. since I have two 200 Amp panels,
>the kits would cost $300 to $400 depending on where you bought them.

You have two 200A panels in one house? Or is one of the panels in a
work shop building?

>I had a 6KW gen hooked up this way before. Had a 21 day power outage and
>another 10+ day power outage and never a moment's trouble and no overloads
>of tripped breakers occurred. Saved a lot of $$$ on fuel by not having a
>huge generator.

I've have a similar configuration and experience with a couple of 10+
day outages.

Posted by on September 8, 2008, 2:37 pm

>You have two 200A panels in one house? Or is one of the panels in a
>work shop building?

This is standard for homes with 400 Amp service.

Posted by metspitzer on September 8, 2008, 4:52 pm

On Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:55:34 -0400, NoSpam@aol.com wrote:

>(ridiculous!) I plan to do it again, esp. since I have two 200 Amp panels,

Your house must be way cool!

>In my situation, I do not want a gen large enough to power the whole house
>so I won't use autostart anyway. I will manually turn off the HVAC brakers
>before starting the gen. Then everything else in my house will have power
>available, even if I cannot run it all at the same time.

I don't understand why anyone would want to select the circuits on the
generator. To me, having the whole panel on the generator would be
much easier to set up and much more flexible.

If the generator doesn't auto start, and I have never seen one that
did, then you can shed which loads you want to lock out, and the
family knows to be careful when the power is out.

The one time the daughter uses the blow dryer, and everything goes
dark would be enough reminder. The breaker lets you safely test the
limits.

Posted by on September 8, 2008, 11:48 pm

wrote:

>I don't understand why anyone would want to select the circuits on the
>generator. To me, having the whole panel on the generator would be
>much easier to set up and much more flexible.

But this is what you have to do if you use a transfer switch/panel that has
only a few circuits. That's why I plan to backfeed the main panels.

Posted by Caesar Romano on September 9, 2008, 8:08 am

On Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:48:06 -0400, NoSpam@aol.com wrote Re Re: Code
question on generator grounding:

>wrote:

>>I don't understand why anyone would want to select the circuits on the
>>generator. To me, having the whole panel on the generator would be
>>much easier to set up and much more flexible.

>But this is what you have to do if you use a transfer switch/panel that has
>only a few circuits. That's why I plan to backfeed the main panels.

Indeed, having the generator feed the entire panel is the way to go.
That gives you the flexibility to choose which loads to feed at the
time you need to use the generator.

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Code question on generator grounding - Page 6