Good morning,

A little background information to start. I used to work on a ranch that was way out in the boondocks. Electricity was constantly going out, like 2-3 times a month and since we were the only ones on that line, we were low priority when it came to getting the power company to come out and fix the issue.

There was a retired electrician that came out and he wired some kind of system in on our meter pole where you could hook a generator up to a plug he put on the pole and it would power the essentials in the house. Kitchen, lights, coffeemaker, fridge etc. We were able to have some power with just a little 3500 watt generator we plugged into the pole which was convenient cause we didn't have to run long extension cords or have the generator running on the back porch.

I've tried to do the same thing at my house in case of emergencies, but the electricians I have talked to around either did not know what I was talking about or did not know how to do this. Have any of ya'll ever done something like this and if so, how is it done? I wish I would have paid better attention when the old electrician did it, but at the time I was young and just assumed it was a pretty common practice. Thanks for the help! Chancey

You're looking for a generator transfer switch. Typically the way it works is the generator has it's own little electrical panel, when the power goes out you can switch over to the generator (or it can switch over automatically) and everything that is connected to the generator electrical panel will have power.

I have a box on my power pole it has a position that allows the generator to power the house without being connected to the main line for obvious power conflict reasons. One it protects the generator from power suddenly coming in and will not send power down the line if they are working on it.

It has a long cord that plugs into a generator no fancy generator box on the house. My local electrician shop put it in for around $200 several years ago. It looks to be built into the old meter box that has a manual transfer lever.

The heavy cord comes out the bottom of the box it’s hard to see in the pic.

Thanks Loosegoose and Law Dog, sure appreciate it.

Law Dog, that sounds like the the set up we had on the ranch. I don't remember having any panel or switch on the house and the electrician did it rather quickly. We just plugged the generator into a plug on the meter pole and the essentials worked in the house.

Loosegoose got it for you.

One important part of the switch is that it isolates the generator feed from the main feed to prevent backfeeding power into the normal supply line. Linemen get a little nervous if the "dead" line they are repairing is actually live from a generator.

If you cannot find a box let me know I could ask around I’m sure some old abandon farm might have one I could buy or the electric coop might have some laying around since they went to the fancy Wi-Fi system they run now.

That box does the same thing by taking it off line and only sending power to the house no feedback is possible it’s not connected when the switch is flipped.

I installed one after a car hit the utility pole close to us. It is pretty easy and there is 2 ways you can do it. Switch lock is cheapest and you can do it yourself. PLUS you will have an RV plug the way mine is installed. I'll post pics in few to show you how I did it. You need a 60 amp breaker installed in your panel. Plug for the generator. If your panel is in garage you will need to penetrate the wall. I came thru the opening that fed my building.

https://www.amazon.com/Generator-In...mp;mcid=8de3bacac8ac3ccf9490d761a0b68774

I did a system very similar to this for my brother

https://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/re...NOWq1x8DleGSSt-IonLk7trtVwhoCNAAQAvD_BwE

payed off the very first year we were out hunting and his wife called in the middle of a drive , infant in the house and the power went out heat out.

walked her through it over the phone without ever leaving the woods (we were 5 hours away)

the circuits we made on the generator

well
septic lift
freezers and fridge
boiler
master bedroom lights and outlets

you have heat cold food , water , toilets and the tv and lights and ceiling fan in the master bedroom

the stove is LP.

This is the safest cost effective way to do it.

Go to this site and find the kit you need for your main panel breaker box and install this interlock on there.
https://interlockkit.com/product/square-d-kit-k-5210/

That physically prevents you from being able to have power from the pole and power from the generator at the same time.
Thats bad if that happens.

Then you install the main generator breaker in that location of the panel so that interlock thing form the link above works.
That will be a 220 breaker so it feeds both sides of the panel.
Then you feed an outside outlet from that breaker, that outlet will be what you plug your generator in to.
Your gen is probably 30 amps, that breaker needs to be 30 amps, and the wire you run needs to be rated for 30 amps too.
So your generator needs to have a 220 plug rated at 30amps.
(so the 220 out of the gen through the 220 plug through the 220 wire through the 220 plug on the house to the 220 breaker in the panel to run throughout the house)

The next thing you do is go through your panel and flip the breakers to figure out which ones run the freezers or whatever you want to be on.
Mark all those breakers with a silver sharpie or on the label or however you decide to do it.

The only weird thing is to figure out your cord from the gen to the outlet.
You need to decide if you are going to have a male outlet on your house to plug a normal cord into, (the cord also needs to be 30A.)
Or if you are going to have a double male cord running from the gen to the outlet which can be hot if the gen is running.

Install some cheap emergency lighting in those areas that are off when the power is on from the pole and kicks over to battery power when it goes down then you can see what you are doing when the lights kick off.

above is simplest legal way to do it. it insures that you have to turn of the grid co you dont fry the line guy.

If you are short on space in the box, for the new breaker, you can buy double pole 15 or 20 amp and up 110 breakers to clear space

I wired the generator cord directly to the breaker in the panel.

I got everything from Amazon including the generator. It is big enough to run my heat pump. After get it installed turn off all your breakers. With generator running start turning on things you must have on. When you get to the limit the generator will will shut down. Don’t skimp on generator size. Vinke I used plug for 2 reasons. My generator is portable now. Plus if I buy an RV i have an outlet




Also if you get duel fuel don’t ever put gas in it unless last resort. Whole different care when you store gas in one With propane just turn off gas and let it die. No storage prep

the thing with the switch lock is you don't know the power came back on till you see your neighbors lights or you go check

the generator switch over switches that just move some circuits , you go flip on the lights in the kitchen , bathroom ect. and when the power comes back on those light up , you wait 10 minutes and if they haven't gone back out again go make the switch back which is flip the switch in the generator panel then go turn off the generator and unplug it ideally turning off the breakers on the generator , then the fuel then let it run dry for storage

My beach house was wired with a pigtail that plugged into my 12kw generator, located in a sheltered area on a raised deck. The generator power went to the main box next to my meter. There was a transfer switch that resembled the letter “h”. There was no way power could back feed to the grid. During hurricanes I often had to wear chest waders to get to the transfer switch during power outages. A better design would have been helpful.

Awesome people on this site, I love this place. Thanks for the feedback fellas!

Good info here. And Please use the Transfer Switch.

You can get a gen transfer switch at Lowes or HD.

Here ya go

Click here

Don't make up a double male plug !!!
Use a power inlet box with a recessed male , then buy or make up a standard twistlock extention cord...L- 14-30 P ( 4 wire - 30 amp )
Interlock kits are the way to go ...