Got our power back on this morning after 18 hrs. 2nd time in about a month or so. Last time it was 29 hrs. Been a pretty rocky Spring around these parts this year.
First time was a tornado, this time a severe thunder storm. Hats off to the linemen and emergency workers!

Good to hear power is back.

We sprung for a Generac last year, its been great to have. When the power goes out, there's about a minute or two, then the generator kicks on. Barely even notice when it switches back over.

Good now you can play the Nintendo!

I’m getting one of them Generlinks. With the ridiculous safety rules made up by someone that’s not in the trade or even in the field, limited hours they can work, and the trouble a utility is having just getting young linemen out the door at night……there’s going to be extended outages. Nobody wants OT anymore. Powerline is just a 8-4:30 job for some nowadays.

Interlock Kit is about the most affordable way for a handy person to properly hook up a generator to an electrical panel.

You buy the specific silver slide tooling for your panel. Remove the panel cover. Drill and install the mechanism and then it prevents you from having your main or your gen breaker on at the same time. So you can't back feed the main line and the main line can't back feed the generator when the power comes back on. Gens are rated at 30 amps. So install a 220V 30 amp breaker in the top position, run 30 amp wire (usually orange/purple), 4 wire red white black bare, hook it up in the panel, drill a hole through the wall, run a wire to the outside, and put in a 30 amp generator receptacle. Make up a 30 amp extension cord (wire and both ends rated at 30 amps, everything 30 amps!) and you are off and running. Make the extension cord 4 wire too and the ends 220 30 amp plugs. Use a generator with a 30amp 220v outlet with four plug holes / posts. (thats the red white black and bare)

The draw back is it doesn't do the automatic start thing. But they make a remote start generator that can be hooked up and all you have to do it throw the breaker and hit the start button. (That way someone can do it while I'm away.)
((they make gens that are tripple fuel use options too, Diesel, Gas, Propane.))

If you have a barn or an out building far enough away from the house that's safe for running the generator in I suggest putting the gen outlet there and installing emergency lighting in that area that comes on when the power goes out.
(Out in the barn you can run a 50amp circuit instead of 30 amps to allow for a bigger "barn" generator.)

(make sure gas carbon dioxide can't go down the conduit to the house or something crazy, not that I am recommending that you do this or anything.)

For entertainment purposes only.

https://interlockkit.com/about-us/

My in-laws did that in their new house. Built to code, it wasn’t much cheaper than a generlink.
Cheapest way is the ole illegal cord plugged into the dryer outlet. But if you screw it up and the storm crew finds out the hard way, you might just turn out to be a missing persons case……lol

I guarantee, that if I find someone back feeding lines that I'm about to work on , at the very least, their service will be cut free, and forgotten about.

As far as having a generator at our home, it would definitely have to be auto start, and transfer, because if I'm out working and the lights go out at home, the Mrs, would probably just go somewhere else, LOL

Fortunately, we live in a pretty reliable area.

It’s rare, but we have cut the service clear at the pole. To get back on the grid, we make the customer hire an licensed electrician to pull a general permit, then we go through the place during inspection making the cust repair any safety concerns, not bringing everything up to code, but the blatant violations. Then there’s a reconnect fee, so they could be looking at $1000 touch. This usually happens after a big storm, and all the electricians are busy for days fixing masts and stuff, so it could be days before they find one. And when the cust says “Hydro told me I needed an electrician & permit” it raises red flags and some will turn the job down….lol

I’ve had a guy try to bill us for a generator that fried. We isolated his tap at the fuse, repaired stuff up stream, then went back to close his cutout. Could hear the generator get real angry then shut off. When the 2 out of sync systems were tied, something had to give. His damage claim was unapproved…..lol

I'm not sure what made you say that? Who was back feeding lines?

I was going to say thats not possible but what do you mean by a generlink? The interlock is a couple hundred bucks and wire, breaker, and outlets are a few hundred bucks. Last I knew generator transfer switches were way more than $500 but maybe they came down in price. Then theres the cost of the generator. I paid $300 for mine, a gas pull cord type. So Im at $800? A transfer switch used to be like $1200 and then you need the $3,000 auto generator that they want you to pay a yearly service fee for. Anyway, thats how it used to be.

I googled generlink. Thats pretty interesting but I've never seen one or know what they cost. I don't see how its interlocked from back feeding either direction but I don't know anything about it. Surely its protected.