Edgecrusher
Member
- Location
- Michigan
- Occupation
- Apprentice
Hello. First time post. I'm hoping you can help me with planning how to set up my generator transfer switch and hopefully I can keep it simple. I have a three story home built into the side of a hill. The hill side of the house has a dirt drive running back to a second unattached garage. My electric service comes down from a riser between this drive and the house and into the basement about where the house and the front attached garage meet. For some whacky reason when they built the house back in '79 the breaker panel was mounted on the exterior block wall in a shallow (~24") closet about six feet up. I'm planning on installing a new panel and bringing it down where a person can reach it and also adding the transfer switch. I have a generator and want teach my wife and kids how to use it safely in the event I'm not there. I have room next to the house near where the service comes down where I think I would like to place the portable generator or at least the inlet plug box. I would guess this will end up being around 15' from the breaker panel in the basement. At this point I have a 6K watt genny and plan to use the Reliance Controls 6-circuit transfer switch kit sold at Home Depot. I don't have a big genny and I think 6 circuits will be plenty to power the necessities.
My question comes when I try to decide where to mount the transfer switch. I could put it in the "closet" with the breaker box which would be easiest. However, there are two reasons I don't want to. First, it would crowd that closet more than I'd like. Second, this closet is in a room I tend to keep locked from the kids(teenagers btw) which would make it hard for them to operate the generator without allowing them access to the room.
At the front of the house is an attached two stall garage. I'm thinking having the switch on the wall near the entrance to the house in the garage on the second (main) level would put it in a great spot where we can easily turn circuits on/off if necessary and keep people out of my locked room. However, I would be extending the line coming from the genny to the switch to a length of ~25' and I would need to run all the circuit wires from the switch down to the breaker panel which may be around 30'.
Is this too much distance to have. Will I experience too much voltage drop? Is it even legal and proper to have it in a separate area from the mains?
My question comes when I try to decide where to mount the transfer switch. I could put it in the "closet" with the breaker box which would be easiest. However, there are two reasons I don't want to. First, it would crowd that closet more than I'd like. Second, this closet is in a room I tend to keep locked from the kids(teenagers btw) which would make it hard for them to operate the generator without allowing them access to the room.
At the front of the house is an attached two stall garage. I'm thinking having the switch on the wall near the entrance to the house in the garage on the second (main) level would put it in a great spot where we can easily turn circuits on/off if necessary and keep people out of my locked room. However, I would be extending the line coming from the genny to the switch to a length of ~25' and I would need to run all the circuit wires from the switch down to the breaker panel which may be around 30'.
Is this too much distance to have. Will I experience too much voltage drop? Is it even legal and proper to have it in a separate area from the mains?