What do I need for a 6000w generator? I have a 200 amp main breaker in the garage with the breaker panel in the basement. Would like to supply the whole house and be selective on which circuits I use with the generator.

Look at reliance controls:

http://www.reliancecontrols.com/Products.aspx

I just installed one a couple weeks ago and it was pretty easy. I hooked it to six circuits.

You are probably not going to be able to power your entire house with a 6000w generator unless you are very selective about what all is running at one time.

quote:

Originally posted by Palm:
You are probably not going to be able to power your entire house with a 6000w generator unless you are very selective about what all is running at one time.

How does one choose?

I would assume that the fridge is going to be running, wouldn't want food to spoil and you have to eat.

Would 6k be able to run a fridge and portable AC unit? One of the window units.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by Palm:
You are probably not going to be able to power your entire house with a 6000w generator unless you are very selective about what all is running at one time.

How does one choose?

I would assume that the fridge is going to be running, wouldn't want food to spoil and you have to eat.

Would 6k be able to run a fridge and portable AC unit? One of the window units.

(I'm not an electrician)

But yes I believe it would. You have to take into account startup watts in that many appliances draw a heavy load at startup and then drop while running. That's why generators often have two watt ratings, the higher number being startup watts and the lower number being running watts.

You can get a device called a kill-a-watt that you plug your device into and it will tell you exactly how many watts it draws.

AC has a yuge draw. My 2K Honda won't run the tiny unit in my camper.

With a 6K generator, just pick the necessities (fridge, freezer, stove, hot water, important lighting, etc...).

Also, use caution when you have a separate box on a transfer. The way they hooked up mine, the circuits that I have designated for the generator in new box need to flipped off (if doing any work that requires you to disconnect service) at the new box even if you are not on generator power. Dang near gave me a big surprise when I was running more outlets out of my freezer box.

I have a 200 amp Square D main panel in my utility room. I back feed to it with 10 gage wire in to a 30 amp double pole breaker. I use the safety device I have linked below to prevent back feeding outside of the house. Do not use this setup without the safety device. My 6800 running watt generator will run my whole house with no problem. Or I can also select which breakers to turn on.

Main Breaker Interlock Kit

Brianp90 beat me to it!

I've got a 7500W generator and wanted to do the same thing.

I got a quote for one of those reliance panels that was linked above, installed, with conduit going outside to a receptacle. It was several thousand and I just could not justify that expense. I called another electrician and he installed a receptacle wired into my main panel outside that has a mechanical interlock so that you have to turn off the main breaker before you engage the generator's breaker. It was less than 1K with a 50' cord for the generator. Then you pick what loads you need/want on your breaker panel.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by Palm:
You are probably not going to be able to power your entire house with a 6000w generator unless you are very selective about what all is running at one time.

How does one choose?

I would assume that the fridge is going to be running, wouldn't want food to spoil and you have to eat.

Would 6k be able to run a fridge and portable AC unit? One of the window units.

During the power outage with Hurricane Irma, I ran, simultaneously, a full size fridge/freezer, a deep freezer, and a 6500 BTU window AC unit on a 5550/8550 watt generator with no problems. I don't have a transfer switch, I used heavy gauge extension cords. When plugging in when the generator is first powered up, I would stage the startup loads. By that, I mean, the generator was started with no load. Then I plugged in the fridge and let it run for a few seconds to get started, then I plugged in the deep freezer, let it run a bit, finally plug in the AC.


Honda has a good guide here.

I have the Reliance 10 circuit transfer switch box.
Using a 3500 generator, not enough to run AC, but covers all the other necessary items.
Sump pump, 2 refrigerators, furnace, hot water heater, well pump, a number of rooms lights, washer/dryer.
My neighbor (electrician) helped clean up the main breaker box and rearrange circuits so I could power up what I felt necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmnut:
What do I need for a 6000w generator? I have a 200 amp main breaker in the garage with the breaker panel in the basement. Would like to supply the whole house and be selective on which circuits I use with the generator.

I use the same philosophy, even though my genset is 20kW, it is still unable to power everything. But I wanted to light up my entire 200amp panel so I could select which appliances to use. I have marked certain breakers to turn off when on generator power, just to ensure we don't use them (range/oven, dryer, welder, one (of two) central AC.
 
My DPDT transfer switch is rated at 200amp, marked "GE Zenith Controls", and was supplied with the Onan genset when I bought it. The utility lines are disconnected from the cut off switch in the main panel and come directly to the transfer (N1, N2), and the generator feeds (E1, E2) are also connected to the DPDT switch. T1, T1 (the output of the switch), go back to the Square D panel's cutoff switch. So the main panel gets either utility power, or genset power. I believe the transfer switch was about $1100, but that was back in 2003. About 1-2 hours time for the electrician to install and hook it up.
 

 

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by Palm:
You are probably not going to be able to power your entire house with a 6000w generator unless you are very selective about what all is running at one time.

How does one choose?

I would assume that the fridge is going to be running, wouldn't want food to spoil and you have to eat.

Would 6k be able to run a fridge and portable AC unit? One of the window units.

YES. 6000 watts is 50 amps at 120 volts. A fridge uses under 15 amps and so does a portable 120 volt a/c unit that has a normal wall plug. So essentially you should be able to run 2 portable a/c's and a fridge...... Is this 6000 watts continuous or surge rating?

Transfer switch isn't necessasrry if you want to have the entire house available to you, you need an interlock for the main breaker and generator breaker. It acts as the transfer switch at a much lower cost. You have to make sure you buy the correct one for your panel.

http://www.interlockkit.com

Additionally you will need a 30a inlet box, and 30 amp breaker, some 10-3 romex, and a generator cord, most likely L14-20 or L14-30 depending on your generator if the 6,000 is peak or running.

Generator is a 7000 start and 6000 continuous. Looks like an interlock is the best way to go.

6k is a lot, my folks would keep two fridges and a large deep freezer going by staggering their cycle on a 3500w.

The first time I lived in Houston, I installed one of the Reliant transfer switches that Palm posted about. It was a 10 circuit and my generator is 5500 continuous watts. My two coworkers helped me pick it out and they were electrical engineers on our hurricane response team (brings back oil & gas facilities on 1 megawatt and larger generators). My generator had a L14-30 outlet so I purchased a 30 amp transfer switch and 40' of 30 amp generator cord. I powered up 10 circuits in my house (kitchen fridge, beer fridge, hurricane bedroom, hurricane bathroom, kitchen outlets, kitchen microwave, etc).







Skins is an electrician and used to install whole home generators so the man knows what he is talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Transfer switch isn't necessasrry if you want to have the entire house available to you, you need an interlock for the main breaker and generator breaker. It acts as the transfer switch at a much lower cost. You have to make sure you buy the correct one for your panel.

http://www.interlockkit.com

Additionally you will need a 30a inlet box, and 30 amp breaker, some 10-3 romex, and a generator cord, most likely L14-20 or L14-30 depending on your generator if the 6,000 is peak or running.

I might install an interlock on my current house since it looks like a lot less money and work than the transfer switch.

Thanks guys. Skins, think I will go with the transfer switch. What size wire do I need to use for about 30 ft?

I will give you an answer and will be ready to stand corrected if I am wrong.

If you are installing one of the exterior switches like tatortodd posted all of the wiring is contained in conduit attached to the transfer switch itself, but it cannot be more than a couple feet away from your breaker box.

The setup I used was to install a power inlet on the outside of my house, and then run about 15 feet of 10-3 Romex (one black wire, one red wire, one white wire, one bare copper wire) from the power inlet to the transfer switch. The transfer switch is then mounted on the inside of the house, right next to the breaker box.

So to answer your question about how wire size, it's going to be 10-3 Romex. How much you need is dependent on how you are going to set it up.

Hope that helps.

Timely topic. Just picked up an 8k/10k dual fuel generator on a deal Thursday. I’ll be looking into one of these Interlock kits with my electrician buddy.

quote:

Originally posted by 9mmnut:
Thanks guys. Skins, think I will go with the transfer switch. What size wire do I need to use for about 30 ft?

A Pre-built One like this? I'd go with the interlock kit myself. The only benefits these have is the watt meter and less circuits available to choose from so one can't accidentally leave A/C on and slam genny with load. It's also a huge negative. If you want to run electric hot water heater (5,000w) you can't. If you had interlock you can wake up in morning turn everything off for 30-40 minutes and have hot water for showers, then switch HWH off and turn on loads you do want most times.

It takes some management of the loads and understanding of their loads, but it is a thousand times more flexible.

For yours 10-3 is the right size from inlet box to tx switch.

Sorry , I meant to say interlock switch.