Thread: Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! Redux

Here's a safety tip. Never fry bacon nekid LOL

That's all that's required? Really? I could pull the meter then and back feed to the dryer plug. Seriously now, cause if that's all that's required, that's what I'm gonna do and if I end up dead on account of ya'lls ignernce, I'm gonna kick ya'lls tail come Monday.

I was under the impression that you had to have some sort of device installed in the breaker box to do something that really, really needed to be done.

Wannabe...

Dryer plug will only be #10 gauge wire only good for 30 amps. Not sure what size generator you have, so watch how much juice you pull through it

What your talking about WB is the special switch for a automatic start up generator. You do not have to pull your meter....just throw the MAIN breaker off....this disconnects your meter ......now rig a 220 3 wire cable with a clothes dryer plug on one end and a 22o plug to fit your generator on the other end. Your in biddness......but do not try to run everything at once and exceed the output of your generator.....for example.....run refrigerator and freezer for awhile, turn them off.....turn on hot water heater, heat water....then turn it offf. Do not try to run every light in the house. Like I said just use your breaker box like a control panel. Don't believe it.....just ask Speck , he'll tell ya.

Genset is 6500 Watts. Not sure how many amps though, although there are two 20 amp breakers on the genset. Just did a little googling and ran into all kinds of warnings about backfeeding to a dryer plug with the most dangerous warning being energizing back to the transformer and have an Entergy employee not realize it. If I pull the meter base, there's not way to energize the lines, so that seems a fail safe protection to the utility guys. Second warning was an amperage over load like mentioned by ES.

Now....assuming I have a label on the genset that says 30 amp or less maximum, am I OK to do this?

Wannanbe...

Hot Water is gas as is stove. A/C is broke, so other than 2 freezers and frig, there's no major draw. Just need to know how to confirm I'm not going to be putting more than 30 amps up the line....not an A/C einstein. I have a meter that's capable of reading amperage and voltage AC, but not the dead sure knowledge and confidence when I reach for the leads.

Wannabe...

Originally Posted by EmptyStringer

Dryer plug will only be #10 gauge wire only good for 30 amps. Not sure what size generator you have, so watch how much juice you pull through it

True....but remember its 220....so ya got 30 amps per leg on your switch box that you can use for a total of 60 amps using 110 , if you control it right. I do this all the time and never had a problem, like I said......do not try to run everything in the house.

If you exceed the amp draw it will just pop a breaker on the generator....if it does that turn something off and reset the breaker.