How do you connect a generator to your home?

Answer 1

There are several ways. The safest is to have an electrician install a transfer switch. This allows you to connect a portable generator to its 4 prong outlet and prevents city power from entering the house and generator. You basically have a manual switch to decide if you want generator power or city. Its a safety thing. This will cost you at least $300 in parts plus the electrician.

There is also an cheaper alternative to a manual transfer switch. There definitely needs to be a safety device but a manual transfer switch is difficult and expensive to install plus it takes a good electrician to make a professional job. An interlocking device, such as the ones from interlockkit.com, mounts on the front of your panel and keeps the main breaker and the generator from being on at the same time. This ensures that the line physically cant be back-fed, which keeps lineman from being shocked and killed. It only takes an hour or so to do the whole job and meets electrical code.

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As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.

Before you do any work yourself,

on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,

always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

Answer 2

First, NEVER EVER try to connect a generator directly into a building's wiring to supply backup power during an outage. If the utility power comes back on while the generator is connected your generator would certainly be damaged, utility equipment as well, and people could be hurt or killed. Your generator could also backfeed voltage onto the utility wires, and electrocute utility workers who are trying to fix the problem that caused the outage in the first place. It is also quite illegal to do so. DONT TRY IT! The only safe and legal way is to have a licensed electrician install a device called a Transfer Switch into your building's electrical wiring. The transfer switch is interlocked so that the utility power and generator power are never connected at the same time. If you only need to supply one or two appliances, like a refrigerator, use the generator's 120v receptacles and extension cords. IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

If you do this work yourself, always turn off the power

at the breaker box/fuse panel BEFORE you attempt to do any work AND

always use an electrician's test meter having metal-tipped probes

(not a simple proximity voltage indicator)

to insure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

Answer 3

It is really easy to do it legally and safely. Google Interlock Kit and this company sells a kit that you put on the front of your panel. It guarantees that you turn off your main breaker before you turn on your generator 'backfeed' breaker. Meets UL requirements and takes about 1 hour to install by anyone that is handy. $150 bucks keeps linemen alive to fix a power outage another day!

Call a qualified electrician!

By Code (National Electrical Code) a generator must be connected through a transfer switch, which will prevent the utility power and the generator from being connected to your house at the same time. If you hook it up wrong (without a transfer switch), the power from your generator (120/240V) could be stepped up through the utility's transformer to a higher voltage (several thousand volts) on the utility line (YOU COULD KILL A LINEMAN TRYING TO RESTORE YOUR POWER!!!!).

Call a qualified electrician!

Answer 4

You don't. The electric meter is not your property, it is the property of the company that supplies the electric.

A generator gets connected to the main panel if you want it to supply power to the house if the power that comes from your supplier is cut off.

This is dangerous work, working inside the panel and should be done by a qualified electrician and not by a do it yourself-er. So no one should answer this question as they wouldn't want to be responsible for killing someone to save them a few dollars.

Answer 5

You would need to use a transfer switch. The generator will hook up to the transfer switch and then the transfer switch to the panel. Usually you would have an emergency breaker panel to hook up to since a 7000 watt generator wouldn't be able to power up most entire homes. You would pick which circuits you would need in an emergency situation and bring those into the emergency panel. The transfer switch makes sure you never have generator power mixing with your houses main power.

Answer 6

It would appear that you did not install it properly, if it was an automatic version. If it is not an automatic model, you might have failed to turn it on, or have it fueled up properly. How was it connected to your home`s power? If at all unsure call a certified electrician to investigate.

Answer 7

Travels with electrified molecules throw lines of copper to a power station where it is converted into a lower wattage then throw those powerlines to your house

Answer 8

First estimate the total load in the house, then ...........................