Home made transfer switch

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jetlag

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Eatonton, Georgia
I have installed several generator transfer switches made for 6.5 kw . They are close to $400.00 with tax . A customer I have installed one for wants small 2.2 k gens installed on 2 other locations on property. The prob is the 6.5 kw switch is smallest for sale locally. I hate for the customer to have to buy two of these for small gens. My question is why cant several 3 way switches be used for this. The common goes to the load and one terminal to breaker and other terminal to gen . I have no doubt will work because have done it before on a camper and thats whats inside a tran switch. But im sure code says something about equiptment must be approved for application on trans switch ?
 
they can but it wont be listed or labeled therefor not acceptable
then theres the insurance co....can you say liability...::cool:
 
And just what would your price be for lets say 3 of these switches installed per code ?There are cheap ways out now days that use the main panel with a back feed breaker with lockout.Keep in mind that they need to be listed for use
 
UL does not test "standard" 3-way switches for switching between two different power sources. I believe that Hubbell even warns against this in their technical literature.
 
ElectricianJeff said:
I have seen a small Square D transfer switch new on Ebay for about 125-150. I havn't seen any available locally.Jeff
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Last I saw, Home Depot was selling those panels for about $180, but I don't know if they do any more.
You can make your own with a Square D QO MLO panel, two 2-pole breakers, and Square D part # QO2DTI. It's the same mechanism Square D puts in their "Generator Transfer Switch" panels. They're about 8 bucks at the supply house. And yes, it is break-before-make.

You can see the mechanism on the two top-right breakers in this photo I took of the last panel I installed.

DSC04782a.JPG
 
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480sparky said:
Last I saw, Home Depot was selling those panels for about $180, but I don't know if they do any more.
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They don't....at least here they don't. When I asked the counter guy about it he told me that HD elected not to sell them anymore because they exceed the scope of what the typical DIY'er could safely install. I found the respnse interesting considering all the other stuff they sell.

Jeff
 
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