Steps for installing a transfer switch

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 05:17:24 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Bruce L. Bergman quickly quoth:

Yeah, I guess they couldn't put diodes in an a/c circuit, could they?

The unsuspecting lineman is the dead one. All others TEST FIRST!

The Pacific Power guy who replaced my dead line last year clamped off the two lines with the dead short of a jumper cable before he replaced that top line. (The top one had broken right at my pole with the transformer on it.) He played it safe and will live to work on more poles.

Better yet, they've pulled their master breaker before connecting a genset in the first place. (If they hadn't put in a transfer box.)

Question: Why is SquareD stuff so bloody expensive?

-- The Smart Person learns from his mistakes. The Wise Person learns from the mistakes of others. And then there are all the rest of us...

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-- Wisearse Website Design

Do you remember the TV series "Green Acres"?

And the short answer of course is the simplest one:

"Because I SAID not to!!"

Jim

Congratulations, Iggy !

You really sucked them in this time. Go brag to your little troll buddies now about all the "hits" you scored with this one.

Bob (couldn't help himself) Swinney

Is this 200 amps at 120, or 200 amps at 240? You have 240 service, but are the amps 200 from hot to hot, or the sum of each leg to neutral? 200 amps at 240 is 48kw. I question because 48kw is vastly in excess of typical residential power requirements. Consider the possibility that the next size down the 100 amp unit, is the fit. The 200 amp unit is a HUGE box! It's designed to switch a 48kw hot load.

We have a master disconnect. The transfer switch is located between the master disconnect and the main panel. We use a second transfer switch to disconnect optional loads, and shunt them directly to a 2nd generator.

I have a 240V panel, and the breaker says "200" on its handle. It is a breaker that would open if current through one of its legs exceeded

200 amps (that's a nominal rating, meaning that it would allow for momentary overcurrents to some extent).

While I rarely use 43 kW of power, I do at times use a lot of power. Example. I am TIG welding in my garage, my wife is cooking a lot of food on the range, my A/C is running, etc. That could easily add up to 140 amps or more (and would be a very rare occurrence).

Well, I would surely be happy to use a smaller and cheaper box, if it was possible, but it is my understanding that the rating of transfer switch should match the rating of the house's electrical service.

sounds interesting.

i

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:28:07 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus20689 quickly quoth:

Ah, that does make a difference. Let's hope you're balancing the legs on the system. I've heard that generators are less forgiving than the grid (and your local xfmr.)

-- The Smart Person learns from his mistakes. The Wise Person learns from the mistakes of others. And then there are all the rest of us...

-----------------------------------------------------

-- Wisearse Website Design

Well you could put in a sub panel and put the transfer switch in the feed to the sub panel

I have been following this tread because I am thinking of going the sub panel rout. The down side is you have to decide which circuits will be on the sub panel. I my case its only the well. the outlets in the kitchen and the lights in the kitchen.

Bill K7NOM

In my case, I have a lot of circuits, most of which supply some important loads but draw very little current, like compact fluorescent lighting. So choosing only very few of them would inconvenience me greatly.

i

Bullshit. What about the thousands of people who died in Europe from a heat wave a couple years ago because there was no A/C? Or are you in favor of executing anyone with any real health problems?

I survived for a month without electricity after the last hurricane to hit here, but 95% of the time was spent laying in bed trying to catch my breath. I'm diabetic and have high blood pressure, and I've become quite heat intolerant because of all the medication. There is a huge difference between just surviving, and being able do do anything useful.

At least one generator was stolen from a home where someone with medical problems had to have electricity to breath when the last round of hurricanes went through the area. The man had to be moved to a shelter because there was no way to get another generator. According to the news story, it was a large portable sitting in their driveway, and was running when the thieves unplugged the cord and drove off with it.

We can survive about 90 degree weather. For worse weather, we have a

15 a window A/C. I have not tried to run it from my generator, but I hope that it could run it (and I realize that it is not a given). i

What do you do when it's five degrees for a month at a time, and you run out of logs for your fireplace?

Either you live in a very, very small cabin in the woods with a chainsaw and a large woodstove, or you live in a somewhat temperate climate.

Jim

I have a feeling I'm going to regret this, but here goes...

I too was concerned with the limited number of circuits available with typical, sub panel type transfer switches. I have a 16kw generator, and a 16 circuit sub panel type ATS. I have circuits that literally draw less than an amp or two in most situations, never more than 5 amps. I just wired them together in the main panel. Kind of rigged my

16 circuit sub panel into an ever expanding sub panel, probably 24 or more circuits are controlled now.

It's an automatic transfer switch, which I know you do not want, but I did the same thing last year when a hurricane hit and I had a 6 circuit manual switch. I had 6 circuits wired, but was using a fraction of the generator's power. At the time, I had a 7500 watt generator, and averaged about 2000 watts. So I added rooms as needed, with no ill effects.

FWIW it's a Generac 5244 generator and matched transfer switch. I thought about the service disconnect, whole house transfer switch, but I know my family cannot control their energy consumption. When breaking in my generator, my wife turned on the Advantium oven (microwave on steroids). It kept up, but only because the 5 ton AC was not running. And I cautioned about turning on lights when breaking in..........

Brad

That's definitely so.

i

Its been well over 90 here lately, to the point that my small A/C is about to die. I can't afford to run the central A/C. It hasn't been turned on for three years now. I can't spend much time outside, yet the VA tells me that I don't have breathing problems.

I don't think my comment was inconsistent with yours. We just can't all live like the unabomber.

Bottom line is, when the snow's four feet deep, your utility bill tends to be more than 25 bucks a month. Heck you put that much into you *truck* each day!

Jim

You have identified the correct switch. A two hundred ampere main breaker results in the need for a two hundred ampere transfer assembly. Be advised that a main breaker interlock kit will achieve the same result at far lower cost. What brand and model is your main breaker enclosure; such as your main distribution panel?

ITE Gould. It accepts Homeline breakers for branch circuits.

i