4 Circuit Manual Transfer Switch (Goal Zero, Reliance)

[dmholmes]

I had said reserve one circuit of manual transfer switch back to interlocked breaker in main panel (to manually feed anything in the house), but I think it would be inverter output back to interlocked breaker. No need to go through manual transfer switch and its smaller breakers.

After getting some questions in a different forum I'm not sure how an interlock would be setup for one side of the bus bar with only 120v coming from my generator or inverter. Is it possible/advisable? Some breakers would have to be moved to accommodate this.

 

[Hedges]

After getting some questions in a different forum I'm not sure how an interlock would be setup for one side of the bus bar with only 120v coming from my generator or inverter. Is it possible/advisable? Some breakers would have to be moved to accommodate this.

You don't want to power just one 120V leg of a breaker panel unless all 2-pole breakers are turned off. Otherwise, 120V is applied to 240V appliances connected in series with 120V appliances on the unpowered leg, which is a brownout condition.

Powering both legs of 120/240V with a 2-pole backfed breaker that has both poles connected to a 120V source can work, but I don't think it should be done with a source (e.g. inverter) that can deliver more than 20A. Routing it through a 20A fuse or breaker before it branches to the two poles of a backfed breaker would be good.

If not limited to 20A total, it could deliver 20A to each leg of the breaker panel and might put 40A through a single neutral wire (depending on how house was wired), which is a fire hazard.

If you do backfeed main panel from inverter, turn off the breaker which feeds inverter from main panel (assuming there is one) so inverter doesn't feed itself.

 

[dmholmes]

You don't want to power just one 120V leg of a breaker panel unless all 2-pole breakers are turned off. Otherwise, 120V is applied to 240V appliances connected in series with 120V appliances on the unpowered leg, which is a brownout condition.

All 2 pole breakers would absolutely be turned off.

Powering both legs of 120/240V with a 2-pole backfed breaker that has both poles connected to a 120V source can work, but I don't think it should be done with a source (e.g. inverter) that can deliver more than 20A. Routing it through a 20A fuse or breaker before it branches to the two poles of a backfed breaker would be good.

If not limited to 20A total, it could deliver 20A to each leg of the breaker panel and might put 40A through a single neutral wire (depending on how house was wired), which is a fire hazard.

If you do backfeed main panel from inverter, turn off the breaker which feeds inverter from main panel (assuming there is one) so inverter doesn't feed itself.

My generator, inverter, and power stations are 15A max. I'm thinking the manual transfer switch might be more error proof now. I would basically do the same as this setup with 6 or 10 circuit switch depending on which we can fit.

 

[dmholmes]

Powering both legs of 120/240V with a 2-pole backfed breaker that has both poles connected to a 120V source can work, but I don't think it should be done with a source (e.g. inverter) that can deliver more than 20A. Routing it through a 20A fuse or breaker before it branches to the two poles of a backfed breaker would be good.

If not limited to 20A total, it could deliver 20A to each leg of the breaker panel and might put 40A through a single neutral wire (depending on how house was wired), which is a fire hazard.

Does this apply to an adapter like this that has the 2 hots bridged? As one of the reviews says:

If your home is wired to accept power from a 30 amp generator socket you can use this plug as an adapter to power it with a regular 120v extension cord (for example, from an inverter hooked up to a vehicle, solar, battery array, or from a neighbor's house). It powers both legs so all your lights and outlets will work. Just make sure that you don't try to use any 220v appliances while using this adapter.

 

[Hedges]

That one has a 15A plug to connect your generator or inverter. So long as you don't connect a source able to deliver more than 20A continuous, you wouldn't have to worry about any 12 awg hot or neutral wire in the house being overloaded. It may have 14 awg not 12 awg wire in it, so best to limit source to 15A.

That looks like a good way to do it, because you could have a 30A 240V generator socket at your breaker panel, either feed it from a 30A 240V source or with this cord a 15A 120V source.

 

[Pyrofx]

That one has a 15A plug to connect your generator or inverter. So long as you don't connect a source able to deliver more than 20A continuous, you wouldn't have to worry about any 12 awg hot or neutral wire in the house being overloaded. It may have 14 awg not 12 awg wire in it, so best to limit source to 15A.

That looks like a good way to do it, because you could have a 30A 240V generator socket at your breaker panel, either feed it from a 30A 240V source or with this cord a 15A 120V source.

That's how we set our remote building . I have a set of power coards for each gen setup