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[adamant]

lost power today. what i need to do is run my central boiler and my forced air fan at my gas heater using my generator.
1. what i was thinking to do is somehow be able to unhook the wire that feeds the central boiler and the blower motor fan from the breaker panel then run it to the generator so i am not feeding back to the grid.
any ideas to do this simple without getting a gen. auto switch installed?

[yoda]

Was thinking about the same thing last week, our power flickered on and off a half dozen time. It got down to -25 that night I was worrying about it half the night. How about instead of wiring the owb direct to your fuse panel, wire a dedicated 110 outlet and plug your line going to the boiler into that outlet. Then if you ever lose power, unplug the owb, plug it into an extension cord and run it to your generator.

[pdboilermaker]

1.  Kill main
2.  Plug generator in to any 220 such as in shop, for dryer, for stove, for tanning be etc
3.  Turn off everything in house
4.  Fire generator
5.  Back to normal life, generator will back feed entire house (I have a 5000 watt and we can do everything but dry clothes)

[603doug]

That is the way I set mine up( female weather tight plug outside wired into a 220 30 amp breaker, kill the main and fire up the gen) is not code but my home wood boiler etc works just fine. I have a 7550 watt gen with 13500 smack so we keep on living comfortable and during our last ice storm it was that way for 5 days

[willieG]

KILL the main??..what if you forget, you could kill a lineman..why not  just  buy the proper switch and have it installed so that there is no way (not even human error) that you could possably have both feeds on at the same time   I know that the way you guys do  it works..and i know folks that do it as well but for me the risk is too great ..i worry that if i did that and i wasnt home the wife might tell one of my older sons to "hook up the generator" and they would forget that first step and then i am sending power up the pole and into some linemans hands that "knows" he is working on a "dead" line

[jon d]

Last month i called my local electric company supplier. They told me that throwing the main breaker was enough-but they would like me to pull the ele. meter also. I guess as a double block. He gave me instruction on pulling meter and said to just give them a call and they'd come and reinstall.

[603doug]

I maybe unlucky because I am the only one who how to hook it up so a lineman is safe. My wife hates electricity and if I was having more than myself play with it I would install a transfer switch. Also it is not so much hurting someone because they are aware there might be power bleeding back (I have family who are linemen) it is the feed back into your gen that is damaging

[jon d]

I maybe unlucky because I am the only one who how to hook it up so a lineman is safe. My wife hates electricity and if I was having more than myself play with it I would install a transfer switch. Also it is not so much hurting someone because they are aware there might be power bleeding back (I have family who are linemen) it is the feed back into your gen that is damaging

   My thoughts exactly!!! Who knows what would happen if i wasn't home and we lost electricity or had other troubles with boiler..   I've told wife if there's any major leak or other issues with boiler to just kill power to it!   And i do have a ele. supply transfer switch planned for this summer!!  They are the safe way to go.

[pdboilermaker]

WillieG

You bring up a good point that it is theoretically possible to kill someone however........Linemen always treat the lines as if they are hot regardless, linemen wear procteive gear that eoul allow them to hold the cord directly out of the generator and finally, if you didnt kill the main and your generator were to "feed out" into the lines, it will either a)  kill the engine because of the surge in draw from all of the other customers on the line section that is out or b)  blow the breaker in the generator its self as you would be pulling way may then the 20-30 amps that the on generator breaker allows

[willieG]

i know this is done and done often and i also don't want to sound like i am condeming it. i just want to stress to those that may be considering it that unless you have a switch that makes it absolutely impossable to have your generator and your electric utility hooked to your home at the same time it is not to code and illegal.  that said, do as you please, and if you please, please be careful

[ckbetz]

Remember that your OWB will only draw a few amps of juice so wire an weathertight outlet and plug it in.  There's no reason you can't wire the fan on your furnace in the same manner.  Sure you have to run an extension cord or two but it's really not that big of deal.  As far as your other home stuff, a power outage is going to be a little inconvenient so if you're not watching your favorite channel then so be it.  I think it's about as easier to run extension cords than to go through the trouble of wiring a switch, etc. for a couple times a year.  After our ice storm a few years ago I made my generator purchase.  It's one of my best ones ever because just like everything else, once I had it the power hardly ever goes out.