After a major ice storm going through and being with out power for days. I was told of a simple way to hook up a generator to my home. So I went to my trusty home store after already buying a generator. I bought the some #6 romex 3 wire with ground and a 30 amp two pole breaker and wired it directly into my breaker box. With a 30 amp, 220 volt plug-in on the outside of my house for the generator to plug into. I killed the main power breaker and fired up the generator.(which is a powermate 6800 watt) and before turning anything on, I checked to make sure that there was no power bleeding back past my main breaker and going out to the power lines.. everything is good to go. Is this a OK thing to do? It looks like after reading some other posts on here that a guy could spend hundreds of dollars doing other things that I don't know are nessacary.. every thing works good as I have it now, didn't know if I should change anything or not..

Maybe you don't see why you need to do more, but when the guy gets there to restore your power, he may have a different slant.

You may be within $160 of the law. Did you look at https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/electrical-lighting/generator-house-123290.html

You might not need to do any more than pick up a interlock plate from you local Square D dealer, move your breaker to the 2,4 slots and install the plate and all the UL approved stickers.

I am not sure what they can do to you for your hook up. I would rather not find out.

After a major ice storm going through and being with out power for days. I was told of a simple way to hook up a generator to my home. So I went to my trusty home store after already buying a generator. I bought the some #6 romex 3 wire with ground and a 30 amp two pole breaker and wired it directly into my breaker box. With a 30 amp, 220 volt plug-in on the outside of my house for the generator to plug into. I killed the main power breaker and fired up the generator.(which is a powermate 6800 watt) and before turning anything on, I checked to make sure that there was no power bleeding back past my main breaker and going out to the power lines.. everything is good to go. Is this a OK thing to do? It looks like after reading some other posts on here that a guy could spend hundreds of dollars doing other things that I don't know are nessacary.. every thing works good as I have it now, didn't know if I should change anything or not..
You are in violation!

You will need an interlock kit, or transfer switch--along with an electrical inspection for your install! Note: Check with your local authority on what they require.
Also, your generator may not be properly grounded.

Personally, I feel a professional should install generator related equipment. But that's just me!


I am not sure what they can do to you for your hook up. If someone gets hurt or die--Jail!

I do have the generator grounded.. what does the interlock kit do for sure?

Please invest the money for transfer switch.. I work for an electric and gas utility in the northeast.. One of scariest things during outages is being in an area with no power and hearing generators going in the backround.. People don't realize but a feed from a generator will go back through the transformer and be stepped up to very big voltages (most common around here is 7620v).. A wire could be down blocking a driveway and the homeowner figures no power to the area I can just move it and get my car out. Well if is is backfeed from a generator look at the last from from wash1 post..

An interlock kit is basically a plate that slides a bit, preventing both the main and the transfer breaker to be on at the same time. It's designed by the manufacturer to meet the appropriate approvals and for that reason, the transfer breaker must be in a particular slot.

Having your generator on, could put 10,000 V on a line that a lineman thinks is dead.
Besides, you are normally fumbling with these breakers in the dark.

In general, the neutral to ground bond in the small portable generator needs to be broken as well. The main panel provides the earth neutral bond.

If the utility company or the building inspector ( of course you got a permit to install the generator and are going to have them inspect it to approve it) but if they find it out of code, you can be fined and have your power shut off till you bring it back up to code.

Trying to save a few hundres is going to cost you a few hundren more for everything you did that is not in code now.

Great input from the above!

As long as you leave the main breaker off, nobody is going to hurt or killed. However, you are one flip a breaker from that. That isn't good enough or legal. If you follow the link in my thread, you can see the interlock is just a simple plate that slides up and down. In the down position, you can't close the back feed breaker. In the up position, you can't close the main breaker. It is just a way of forcing you to remember to open the main breaker. Even if you went out now and flipped the main breaker on now, likely all that would happen, is that the overloads in your generator would open in a few seconds as it tried to power up everything for who knows how far. Of course, if somebody happened to be touching the wrong wire in those seconds, that would be plenty of time to kill them. Understand there is a transformer on the pole outside your house. Push 240 out to it, and its primary, 10,000, 30,000, whatever, will be energized, in turn energizing the primary of the transformer that feeds it.

You really need to do something before you get caught. If you have a GE or Square D box, call the local dealers in the morning and see if they stock the interlock plates. If not, call the Interlock people in the link in my thread. Have them Fedex you a kit. They are quite easy to install. Still to keep the AHJ happy, you might want to have an licensed electrician do it.

Forget the transfer switches. As much as a rip off as the interlock kits are, the generator panel kits are worse. You sound like the kind of a guy that could make a plate in about an hour. Problem is, the UL approved decals that the kit has. $5 for the plate, and $145 for the decals.

Thank you all very much for the input. I have a lot of ideas, not which is the best right now, I almost like the idea of a transfer switch that I can install on the outside of the house, then when transfer over from the power company to the generator, its one nice easy switch and not have the breaker box cluttered up!

The trouble with a transfer switch is you have to disconnect your main service.
I think the main breaker is where most DIY work should stop. Of course, if you could lay ahold of one while the power is still off, you could connect it in. The AHJ will be much pickier about permits, licensed workers, etc. with anything involving the main service. The generator panels still need a feed breaker in the main panel for normal use.

As lax as stuff is here, I don't expect any trouble over me installing the interlock. It isn't an easy question. When I lucked into the deal on the generator, I though I could go with a suicide cord. It took me 2 years to find what worked for me and get it done.

You must make the connection dummy proof. What happens if a family member, neighbor, etc. lights the generator when you're not home? A perfect example is my secretary's mother. She was stranded without power in Oklahoma with this last ice storm. She is now a widow and struggles lighting her emergency generator. Her neighbor came over and did it for her. Neither has a clue regarding safety, NEC, etc. All they knew to do was fire the generator. Hers is properly installed with a transfer switch. But if it wasn't, they wouldn't have had any idea and someone could have been hurt or killed.

I would like to add to Washington's post regarding jail. That's only the half of it. You could sit in jail while the rest of your family deals with the civil liabilities of such an action. You could lose everything.

There is no denying the potential for problems, but are there any figures on how many there really are? Links to a report of one? I do strongly feel one would be one too many.

I do have to say, at least you asked about the arrangement you thought was no problem, and was questioning spending money for something you thought may not be necessary.

Fortunately, linemen will usually hang there Tic-Tracer on the lines they are working on during a storm repair, and always wear protective gear even if they know a line is dead.

In the event you do send power back out on the grid, and the Tic Tracer detects voltage on the line the linemen is repairing, he will stop work, and send out a supervisor with a Tic Tracer tracking the source of voltage. Once they find your home is the source, they will have a bucket truck arrive to cut you free from the grid, permanently.

Here they will then ignore you home until every other building in the area is powered, and then send a utility company rep out to visit you, with the electrical inspector, who will then inspect your service and generator setup, and issues a summons to effect repairs to bring everything to code before he will issue a release to the power company to re-connect. And believe me, he will be thorough, and picky, and probably not to pleasant.

And that is the best scenarios. If someone out working on the line did get hurt, or worse, then as mentioned before, because of your negligence, criminal and possibly civil lawsuits will be in order.

Sorry for picking on you, but not only trying to not only educate you but anyone else that gets the chance to read this.

I would have figured they would have inspected things before you had a chance to destroy the evidence and take pictures.

While the evidence may be gone, there better be a working service perfectly installed, or they will know something was up.

Wow talk about getting educated! I have deffianlty learned a lot, I knew it was a no no sending power back out to the grid, and I knew a guy could get in trouble for it.. but I didn't know about all the extras that are needed to prevent such a thing.. thanks again everyone!

Whew... one more unsuspecting soul brought over from the dark and dangerous side of DIY.

Not only do this for yourself, pass this on to anyone that you know that is planning to connect a generator improperly.

Well since this ice storm... quite a few poor souls out there that are doing worse than I did... I've seen it, not good.. one guy fried his TV even!

Well this morning it was cold and windy here and the power off. Due to junk from another project, I had to wheel the generator most of the way around the house and drag it over stone that will eventually be a flagstone walk. Once I got it going and on my way back to the garage, I realized I was too cold to think straight. With the interlock, I had no choice but to kill the main before switching the back feed breaker on. I also decided it was easier to turn all the breakers off than pick out the ones with a real load like the pump, fridge, freezer. Having power was nice with 5 people in the house including my 3 month old grand son. The power had been off about 4 hours when I got up, and was off another 4 hours. My wife was able to shower and go off to work.

I also found a solution to how to tell if the power is back on. All I need to do is touch my voltage detector to the main breaker. The interlock allows use of any circuit, but leaves none to light up when power comes back on. In the day time, it is hard to see if the neighbors lights are on.