I set my system up so that all breakers for the house are in a critical load panel. The only breakers in the original main panel are breakers for the inverters, one breaker for an EMP Shield, and a breaker for my generator. I shut the main breaker off, then connect the gas generator and THEN turn the generator breaker on. My inverter recognizes it as the utility and lets the house power up through the generator while it charges the batteries.