Hello All, to provide a baseline, I'm not a licensed electrician, but I have a good understanding of electrical theory, and practical experience in various settings.
For my own residence I want to connect a portable generator to my main 200A panel using an inlet box and interlock to run my well, boiler, (3) air handlers, and refrigerator, and sewage pump. I doubt that even the full 6500W could power these simultaneously, and I'm fine with intermittent use of most. I am also aware of the neutral bond situation.
Every generator I looked at that had a 50A outlet was over $6000 or was a piece of junk. I purchased a good used Honda EB6500 Watt unit thinking I was going to be able to use the full 6500 Watts through the 30A outlet to achieve my load demands, however after reading a supplement manual I found buried on Honda's website, this unit can only produce 22.9A on this outlet when using 240V. this unit only has (1) 30A 240 outlet, no 50A, and a few 120V outlets. This is probably around the max capacity of the generator, but unbalancing, coupled with the 22.9 A limit are concerning. (see link)
https://cdn.powerequipment.honda.com/pe/pdf/manuals/pci54173eb5xpdf.pdf
It has these two statements which I'm not 100% certain about:
When the voltage selector switch is in the 120V/240V position, the power circuits operate in series, like two separate generators. Each circuit supplies up to 22.9 amps maximum to specific receptacles as shown in the graphic. Neither power circuit can supply power to the other power circuit’s receptacles. It is important, therefore, to balance the load on both power circuits.
So, my questions are these:
Mike
For my own residence I want to connect a portable generator to my main 200A panel using an inlet box and interlock to run my well, boiler, (3) air handlers, and refrigerator, and sewage pump. I doubt that even the full 6500W could power these simultaneously, and I'm fine with intermittent use of most. I am also aware of the neutral bond situation.
Every generator I looked at that had a 50A outlet was over $6000 or was a piece of junk. I purchased a good used Honda EB6500 Watt unit thinking I was going to be able to use the full 6500 Watts through the 30A outlet to achieve my load demands, however after reading a supplement manual I found buried on Honda's website, this unit can only produce 22.9A on this outlet when using 240V. this unit only has (1) 30A 240 outlet, no 50A, and a few 120V outlets. This is probably around the max capacity of the generator, but unbalancing, coupled with the 22.9 A limit are concerning. (see link)
https://cdn.powerequipment.honda.com/pe/pdf/manuals/pci54173eb5xpdf.pdf
It has these two statements which I'm not 100% certain about:
When the voltage selector switch is in the 120V/240V position, the power circuits operate in series, like two separate generators. Each circuit supplies up to 22.9 amps maximum to specific receptacles as shown in the graphic. Neither power circuit can supply power to the other power circuit’s receptacles. It is important, therefore, to balance the load on both power circuits.
So, my questions are these:
- Reading that, it sounds like on the 240V 30A outlet that I should be able to draw 22.9A on each hot leg. Meaning I can operate a 240V circuit up to 22.9A, but I cannot also run another 120V circuit at the same time, regardless of draw because it's going to be unbalanced, Or that doing so may harm the generator. Can someone help clarify these scenarios?
- Expanding upon that, when they indicate the importance of a balanced load on this circuit, the only way I can achieve that is to only run 240 on the 240 outlet, and not use this as a 120V/240V on demand, right?
- Assuming I can get past the (1&2) I'd prefer to wire this set up to a 50A connection box, breaker, and 6AWG so that I don't need to do it again if I upgrade the generator. In doing so I'd need to transition the 50A female twist lock plug to a 30A male twist lock plug using 8AWG. Does this present any concern given I'm using a panel interlock on the main breaker? Said another way, is anyone aware of an adaptor to make that transition on a 30A cord or is this a problem?
- If there's no feasible way to run my loads on demand be it 120v or 240v on this generator when connected through the 240v outlet, is there a type of generator that I can do this with that won't have these limitations? Even Honda's biggest residential EU7000 has the same limitations with only slightly more capacity.
Mike
