The electron man
Senior Member
- Location
- Nyc
- Occupation
- Electrician
Regarding portable generator do they all come with a built in ocpd or is that built in to the transfer switch ?
portable generator
- Thread starter The electron man
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- Tennessee NEC:2017
- Occupation
- Semi-Retired Electrician
Portable usually means 7K-10K or similar and you don't have ATS with those. Those are the type a home owner would roll in/out of their garage. What size generator are you talking about?
Joethemechanic
Senior Member
- Location
- Hazleton Pa
- Occupation
- Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
Usually this interlock setup works best for a portable generator. I have a 100 amp manual transfer switch here and it doesn't have any OCPD in it. It's more or less a big DPDT switch in a big enclosure
The electron man
Senior Member
- Location
- Nyc
- Occupation
- Electrician
I have seen Generac makes a manual transfer switch for homes with an inlet box on youtube
The electron man
Senior Member
- Location
- Nyc
- Occupation
- Electrician
Whats a DPDT switch , I know when using a interlock kit the ocpd is in the panel but I have seen on YouTube some homes have a small transfer switch was wondering if the gen has the ocpd or dose the switch have it
Joethemechanic
Senior Member
- Location
- Hazleton Pa
- Occupation
- Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Last edited:
- Location
- Tennessee NEC:2017
- Occupation
- Semi-Retired Electrician
The generator will have a small breaker to protect it from overload. The transfer switches will have OCPD for each circuit. An ATS, if service rated, will have a main breaker.
Joethemechanic
Senior Member
- Location
- Hazleton Pa
- Occupation
- Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
Most times with a portable generator you have to load shed. You kill the breakers for the less critical loads. Like range, dryer, central air, whatever you can live without.
They sell switches like this also. You connect all your critical loads to it. It makes things a little more foolproof. You can really do the same thing with a small subpanel.
They sell switches like this also. You connect all your critical loads to it. It makes things a little more foolproof. You can really do the same thing with a small subpanel.
Joethemechanic
Senior Member
- Location
- Hazleton Pa
- Occupation
- Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
Here is a very good video on the importance of load shedding
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
I remember that one!
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
Most, if not all have OCPD as part of the generator.
ggunn
PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
- Location
- Austin, TX, USA
- Occupation
- Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
Most (all?) the portable generators I have seen have had a built in OCPD, and transfer switches generally do not have OCP on the generator input.
Joethemechanic
Senior Member
- Location
- Hazleton Pa
- Occupation
- Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
These were the best. Kohler 1A21 with autostart. Put a load on them and they automatically started. Remove the load and they shut down.
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