Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch

Tue Aug 31 06:34:49 UTC 2021

On 8/31/21 07:37, John van Oppen wrote:
> I told my wife that she is my critical load as such I like to treat our place like a datacenter.   House wide UPS for all lights and all bedroom and office outlets, large generator system, ATS and lots of fuel.   Last time I was at a nanog and the power went out she chuckled when I told her it was out, she had just come home from work and driven right into the garage with all the lights on thinking the utility was still working.

Me too :-).

She wasn't amused when all the contractors are faffing about for 8 
months installing the system. But she is pleased when the power goes out 
and we just keep going.

> I did all my commissioning and calculations myself, even coordinated breakers for both sources into the sub panels, but I'm far from a home DIY when it comes to electrical.   My home 277/480v service is pretty cute compared to the stuff I normally play with and design.
>
> I've cabled my other portables into panels at people's houses before but I refuse to talk them through how to do it, if you don't know how to properly pull the utility breakers etc you have no business temping anything up, and making cables that make it easy is irresponsible safety wise.
>
> Power is serious business and mistakes can be very dangerous.

I did all my design and planning too, but used qualified contractors to 
install and certify the setup. I am not an electrician. I won't even 
replace a breaker panel cover label sticker myself. I don't play those 
games :-).

Mark.