portable generator

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olly

Senior Member
Location
Berthoud, Colorado
Occupation
Master Electrician
I am wiring in a portable generator to maintain power during an outage. I was going to pull the fuses in the main disconnect to prevent backfeed. wire in the 480v gen. into the load side of the disconnect. Butt splicing into the system nuet. and a seperate but splice for the ground wire. Thus temporarly moving the ground nuet bond to the generator. Is this the correct way to do this? I have never wired in a portable 3 phase genny like this... Any other tips or suggestions would be very appreciated!!!!! Becides checking rotation i do know I need to do that. Thanks guys.
 

LEO2854

Esteemed Member
Location
Ma
I am wiring in a portable generator to maintain power during an outage. I was going to pull the fuses in the main disconnect to prevent backfeed. wire in the 480v gen. into the load side of the disconnect. Butt splicing into the system nuet. and a seperate but splice for the ground wire. Thus temporarly moving the ground nuet bond to the generator. Is this the correct way to do this? I have never wired in a portable 3 phase genny like this... Any other tips or suggestions would be very appreciated!!!!! Becides checking rotation i do know I need to do that. Thanks guys.

Is this something that is temporary?
 

LEO2854

Esteemed Member
Location
Ma
I am wiring in a portable generator to maintain power during an outage. I was going to pull the fuses in the main disconnect to prevent backfeed. wire in the 480v gen. into the load side of the disconnect. Butt splicing into the system nuet. and a seperate but splice for the ground wire. Thus temporarly moving the ground nuet bond to the generator. Is this the correct way to do this? I have never wired in a portable 3 phase genny like this... Any other tips or suggestions would be very appreciated!!!!! Becides checking rotation i do know I need to do that. Thanks guys.

Also, I thing it would be a good Idea to find another electrician to work with you on this, none of us know everything and I would make a call myself if I was unsure.
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
In terms of connections, it sounds right.
Whether just pulling (and hiding?) the fuses is a sufficient lockout of the utility connection or whether something like pulling the meter or disconnecting wires would be preferred is beyond my knowledge.

Tapatalk!
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
Basically the code requires a listed transfer means unless ....


Exception: Temporary connection of a portable generator without transfer equipment shall be permitted where condi-tions of maintenance and supervision ensure that only qualified persons service the installation and where the normal supply is physically isolated by a lockable discon-necting means or by disconnection of the normal supply conductors.

When we do this we have an electrician babysit the installation for the entire time it is running. This has sometimes meant many days of rotating shifts.
 

renosteinke

Senior Member
Location
NE Arkansas
I recently had a similar discussion with a guy who was adamant about jury-rigging things.

Why? Because he was convinced that automatic transfer switches cost $$$$$. He was simply not aware that there are 6-circuit manual transfer switches that are quite affordable. No need to pull fuses, etc.
 
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