20A to 30A extension cord

[drcampbell]

5-15P to L14-30

5-15P to L14-30

I've occasionally wired up a 5-15P to L14-30R adapter, to enable a small 120-volt-only standby generator to power a "whole" house. You obviously can't power everything but every outlet is live and you can run the essential loads -- television, video games, Internet and phone chargers; plus maybe a refrigerator and gas furnace -- and a few lights and small appliances.

 

[KaBoom!]

I've occasionally wired up a 5-15P to L14-30R adapter, to enable a small 120-volt-only standby generator to power a "whole" house. You obviously can't power everything but every outlet is live and you can run the essential loads -- television, video games, Internet and phone chargers; plus maybe a refrigerator and gas furnace -- and a few lights and small appliances.

I do this all the time when installing portable generator connections for people who currently have a 120V <20V generator.

I still install the 120/240V 30A system on their house so they are setup for it if they upgrade their generator, I just give them an adapter so that they can use their current smaller generator. Some of my customer have 2 generators, a big one for during the day and a small 120V inverter model to chug along during the night.

 

[Craigv]

I've occasionally wired up a 5-15P to L14-30R adapter, to enable a small 120-volt-only standby generator to power a "whole" house. You obviously can't power everything but every outlet is live and you can run the essential loads -- television, video games, Internet and phone chargers; plus maybe a refrigerator and gas furnace -- and a few lights and small appliances.

I do this all the time when installing portable generator connections for people who currently have a 120V <20V generator.

I still install the 120/240V 30A system on their house so they are setup for it if they upgrade their generator, I just give them an adapter so that they can use their current smaller generator. Some of my customer have 2 generators, a big one for during the day and a small 120V inverter model to chug along during the night.

These adapters are safe...you can't create a situation where the conductors have insufficient OCPD protection, or supplying the wrong voltage to a device.

 

[KaBoom!]

These adapters are safe...you can't create a situation where the conductors have insufficient OCPD protection, or supplying the wrong voltage to a device.

There is one thing that may be unsafe about them. Any MWBC in the panel can theoretically have an overloaded neutral due to the hots being the same phase/leg. But in this situation there is very little power being used and the generators are not capably of producing that much power in the first place.