CAN I PLUG MY PORTABLE UNIT INTO A WALL RECEPTACLE?

Visual Diagram of Backfeeding

Connecting a portable generator directly to your household wiring can be deadly to you and others. A directly connected generator can 'backfeed' onto the power lines connected to your home. Utility transformers can then step-up or magnify this backfeed to thousands of volts—enough to kill a utility lineworker making outage repairs a long way from your house. You could also cause expensive damage to utility equipment and your generator.

To power your household circuits directly, you must install a transfer switch. Whether automatic or manual, a transfer switch makes sure your household wiring, or selected circuits to be supplied by the generator, can't be connected to the utility grid and to your generator at the same time. That prevents backfeed -- and the risk of having your generator damaged or destroyed if utility power is restored while the generator is connected to your wiring.Working around your household fuse or breaker box can be dangerous, so the safest course is to hire a licensed electrician to install the switch for you.

Please note: Portable generators aren't intended to be connected directly to your household wiring, but to the items you wish to power. Use properly sized, outdoor-rated cords to power chosen end uses such as a stove, refrigerator, furnace, water pump, or lamps. If a portable unit is to be hooked to household circuits rather than to appliances themselves, it needs a transfer switch and a dry, solid mounting in a properly vented area, just as a permanent unit does. Portable generators need to be grounded, just like other major electrical devices. Many have a grounding lug on the chassis so you can run a copper grounding wire to a pipe sunk into the earth; see your owner's manual for details.
A particularly dangerous practice is moving a portable generator around on a truck and simply plugging in to an outdoor outlet to supply power to a friend or relative's house. The practice involves a serious risk of injury or death from back-feed or from sudden restoration of utility service. That's why it's prohibited by the National Electric Safety Code. Information taken from here.

A Portable Generator Backfeeding Story

He looked at the generator output receptacle and realized that he had a cable in his shop with the same end on it! HEY, not only did he have a cord with the right end, but his electric arc welder outlet in the garage of the house matched it too! His lucky day? NOT !!!

He proceeded to take the cord off of his welder and installed the other receptacle on the end, yes... they are both MALE receptacles! He plugged one end into the generator, the other into the welding outlet on the garage wall, and being a 'smart guy' went to the main panel and turned off any breaker feeding devices and equipment he didn't need... except, he left the main turned on...

The generator seemed to give him a 'few problems' while it was running, but he made it work (all assisted by his other neighbour turning THEIR main breaker off when their lights started 'flickering' (back fed from the neighbours generator?)

When the power was restored to the area, the neighbour noticed that the streetyard lighting from his neighbours shop was on, but he could still hear the generators running... for a few minutes.

As he was getting ready to walk over and let his neighbour know that he could turn his generators off and run his party at 'full power', he said there was a loud 'WHOMPFFFF' from across the field and then the sky lit up !
Read the rest of the article here.

One Guy's Experience With a Generator

Bob Tedeschi's experience with a generator system.

The Pragmatist
Ready to Talk Amps and Ohms?
By BOB TEDESCHI Published: March 27, 2013 From The New York Times

When the February blizzard unplugged my Connecticut home from the power grid for the fourth time in recent years, the whining started immediately: here we go again with the spoiled food, the lack of running water, the dormant oil burner.

We layered up for the first night, and cooked food in the fireplace on Day 2 like good campers. Then, heading into the second night of the storm amid plunging temperatures, we settled around the fire. All I could think of was our vulnerability to a house fire or carbon monoxide fumes from the fireplace.
Time for a generator system.

Time, in other words, to bleed money and enter a process where I’d try to conceal deep ignorance while talking to retailers and electrical contractors — all of whom, of course, knew better.
To keep the fiscal bleeding to a minimum, I sought guidance from people who know a thing or two about buying and installing generators. They included Julie Selton, a master electrician who teaches electrical technology at Saint Paul College, in St. Paul; Stephen Borrelli, president of All-Brite Electric in Connecticut; Michael McAlister, a co-author of “Wiring Complete,” a reference book for homeowners; and Lisette Rice, the Home Depot’s generator merchant. (She reminded me that the smart time to buy and install a generator system is when the forecast is free of blizzards or hurricanes, when you don’t have to fight the crowds for one.)

My experts suggested brushing up on some basic electrical knowledge, getting to know your home’s wiring and thinking hard about what you really need to get through a storm. Doing so, they said, can save you considerable amounts of money, and maybe save a life in the meantime.
We’ll get to that drama later. First, though, Ms. Selton said, homeowners should decide which parts of their homes are truly crucial. “Is it a freezer with hundreds of dollars worth of meat in it?” she said. “A well pump? A home office you have to power up?”

If the answer is that you want your entire house to work as it normally does, have an extra $8,000 to $10,000 on hand. So-called standby generator systems from manufacturers like Kohler, Caterpillar, Generac and Cummins Onan are miracles of engineering that switch on automatically when your electricity shuts off, and can power everything in your house.

Units that can power an average-size home sell for roughly $5,000, and they require a concrete slab, a propane source and wiring connections installed by an electrical contractor. If the cost of the whole house generator system alone didn’t exceed my budget by roughly 90 percent, I would have considered them. For people with similar budgetary constraints, the next step is a scavenger hunt. After you identify the electrical appliances you’ll need to withstand a power failure, tally up the wattage those appliances need to run.

Remember those teachers in high school who tried to explain the difference between a watt, an amp and a volt?

Neither do I.

My panelists reminded me that the important measure (for the purposes of evaluating generators, at least) is the number of watts your appliances consume. Voltage can also be crucial, but I’ll get to that nuance in a minute.

So check the nameplates of your major appliances and record the amps and the volts. If some part of the information is missing, call the manufacturer or retailer who sold it to you. I wanted to run the refrigerator, well pump, furnace and maybe one or two outlets for lights.
Total watts: about 3,800.

This was great news, since, in theory, I could get away with a $350 generator rated for 4,000 starting watts and 3,500 running watts. An appliance requires more wattage to start up than it does to run, so the “starting watts” measure covers that surge.

While the 3,500 measurement obviously falls short of my overall capacity of 3,800, I could simply unplug the fridge and run the well pump when we needed running water.

The bonus: it just so happened that days after the blizzard, my mother bought a 3,500-watt generator before realizing it wouldn’t suit her home. Retailers generally adopt a no-returns policy on generators, so she was stuck with it.

To read the entire article go to www.magictolight.com

Where Do I Install my Generator?

When deciding where to install your residential generator, you need to consider the location in relationship to your house and the location in relationship to your panel.

How Close to my Electric Panel Should
my Residential Generator be Installed?

First, let's talk about where to install it in relationship to your electric panel.  Usually it makes sense to install your unit as close to your breaker panel as possible.  This is because it is more cost effective because you use less wire and because a drop in voltage can occur in long lines which can leave the residential generator underpowered. The good news is if you absolutely must have the unit installed a long distance from your house, it's possible to manage the voltage.  However, you'll likely pay quite a bit more.
  The National Electric Code (NEC) documents the current carrying capacity of wires. 
Lets look at a simple example:

• Kohler 18RES generator (an excellent generator, by the way) with a derated output of 70 Amps
• The cable length from the generator into your Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) is 15 feet
• Cable is installed in electrical conduit

You would need to use #4 Copper conductors. This would limit the voltage drop to only 0.51% for each of the two 120 volt legs of the circuit

If you increased the distance from 15 feet to say, 100 feet, you would need to increase the wire size to #3 Copper. This would result in a voltage drop of 2.74% -- still within acceptable limits. Just a note, if you wanted to keep the voltage drop to less than 1%, your would have to increase the wire size to 4/0. This would increase your installation cost significantly!

As mentioned above, the NEC defines the acceptable types and sizes of electrical wire for all conceivable situations. You can save money by using Aluminum conductors instead of Copper, but you have to increase the size of the conductor. Be sure to check with your state and local codes before using Aluminum. It is acceptable in most places, but there are a few special things that must be done to do the job right.  Calculations taken from here.

How Close to my House

Should my Residential Generator be Installed?

Second, let's talk about where to install it in relationship to your home.  Installing your residential generator outside a window is not a good idea due to exhaust fumes.  In fact your installation specialist will probably choose to avoid this because of liability issues.  You can expect some noise from your generator when it runs its regular test cycle and when its supplying power during an outage.  It can be anywhere between 62dB and 78dB about 23 feet from the unit.  This is similar to the sound an air conditioner makes.  You can always check the spec sheet for your unit.  The manufacturer addresses this.  This is essential information for some home owners due to noise regulations from city government or home owners associations. 

Why Does Anna Quindlen Love Her Standby Generator?

Some people think an emergency power generator is a waste of money, yet a lot more think of it as a kind of insurance policy.  It's a relief to have it when you need it!

A Message Delivered by Tornado After five days without power, a desperate writer calls her contractor to say: 'Generator. Please. Soon.'

Author Anna Quindlen Explains Why
She Loves Her Emergency Power Generator

By Anna Quindlen April 11, 2013 10:00 p.m. ET I love my generator. It's not much to look at, a beige box half the size of my desk, hidden by a scrim of native grasses. If my power goes out for more than two minutes, it clears its throat and rumbles into life.

The fridge hums, the TV flares, the water flows from the faucet. Every once in a while I give the generator a pat in passing to show my appreciation.
For a long time I didn't think I needed a generator at all. Several times each summer, the power at our house in eastern Pennsylvania would go in the middle of a thunderstorm. I bought some Coleman lanterns, the battery-powered kind that I thought looked nice scattered about the house, in the corner of the upstairs hallway, tucked behind a chair in the den. It seemed romantic and retro, reading by Coleman light. The only real downside of those outages, which usually lasted less than a day, was when the power would be restored in the middle of the night and I would shoot out of bed to the sudden glare of three standing lamps and the sound of reruns of a "Law & Order" franchise from downstairs.

Why an Emergency Power Generator Became a Priority

But then, in 2009, the tornado came. One of the things that was freaky was how exactly it conformed to every news report I'd ever seen. Dark air like demonic possession, a sharp path cut across the land by meteorological shears. We were lucky; the sharp path fell directly between the house and the garage. You could follow it from there by looking at the empty spaces in a solid line of trees, the rootballs waving their witchy root toes in the air. We lost a lot of trees. And the power, for five days. Five long days. It's funny the little things you miss. Our coffee maker is electric. Each morning my friend, Emily, would bring a thermos of coffee and take my phone away to charge it.
But there was a big thing missing, too, and it wasn't light. Where we live, if you lose power, you lose water. And after five days of keeping a bucket by the back door so I could get water from the pond for the toilets, five days of trying to convince myself that going in the pool was almost like an actual shower, I called the contractor and said, "Generator. Please. Soon."

I didn't want one of those transient generators, the gasoline-powered kind on wheels in a generator stroller connected to your power system with an umbilical cord of cables. I'd had a permanent scare from the tornado, and I wanted a permanent solution. And I got one, and more. When the contractor was putting in the underground propane tank for the generator—because every home project proves the domino theory, doesn't it, the new windows begetting the new moldings begetting the new paint job—he said, "You know, you could have a gas stove now." And everyone who had heard me wax poetic about the horror of electric stoves breathed a sigh of relief as my big cast-iron white enamel six-burner gas stove was installed along with the generator. The generator was a godsend during Hurricane Sandy, although not for us. We were in New York, and in a part of New York where it almost seemed that nothing had happened, where you could still get pizza deliveries and stop by the Duane Reade for toothpaste and celeb magazines. But our friends in the country lost power for 11 days, and because of our generator they could use our place for showers and wireless and refrigeration and that pot of coffee that turns out to be more central to a comfortable existence than you'd ever imagined.

Quindlen at her home, which is kept up and running with occasional use of her beloved generator. Evan Sklar for The Wall Street Journal

After the storm, one of my brothers-in-law said you couldn't even talk to a contractor about an emergency power generator; they were so backed up with requests. Suddenly everyone had discovered they needed one. I had one. It felt good. It felt like insurance. We act the way about our homes that teenagers sometimes do about having unprotected sex—yeah, yeah, I know, but the worst won't happen to me. Then it happened to us, and we got a generator. It gives us the illusion of security, although sometimes still when the wind picks up, I get a feeling I never had before the tornado. It's not a good feeling.
One night after Sandy, I saw footage on the news of a beautiful beach-side house at the Jersey Shore that was leaning over as though its third floor was trying to whisper to the waves. It was a goner, that house, and clearly visible next to it was a generator. It looked like mine; I was sure it was the same size, the same model. Same illusion of protection and safety, I bet. Just like in the tale about the three pigs, houses are basically made out of three things: straw, sticks and bricks. You add in the sump pump, the French drain, the alarm system, the slate roof, the gutters, the generator and you convince yourself that you're safe. And most of the time you are. Most of the time the generator just tests itself for 10 minutes on Thursdays at 5, then hangs around, nothing more required. Most of the time.

—Ms. Quindlen is the author of six novels. Her latest book, "Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake," is a memoir.

Article taken from the Wall Street Journal


An emergency power generator may not be at the top of everyone's emergency preparedness list, but for some it's an absolute necessity.

What are Silent Generators?

Silent generators are generally used for large or custom homes and small businesses like convenience stores.  They are more quiet than standard stand by generators which sound like an AC unit when running. 

Generac Quiet Source™ Series
 Generac has a QuietSource Series. Ideal for homes requiring backup power for additional living areas, garages and air conditioners, pools, or guest houses.  It's engineered to run at a low 1800 rpm with a liquid-cooled engine for additional power but extra-quiet operation and reduced fuel consumption with fewer emissions.
It features.........
Quiet-Test™
Your home standby genertor runs its weekly self-test at an even lower RPM. It’s quieter than other brands, and consumes even less fuel.  Quiet-Test technology features Generac's exclusive TruePower Technology, Generac automatic standby generators deliver best-in-class power quality for confident operation of heating, cooling, home theaters, computers and more. With less than 5% total harmonic distortion, sound quality and performance are just as smooth and consistent as the output from conventional electrical connections. You'll never notice you're on generator power with TruePower Technology.
Durable Aluminum Enclosure
Aluminum provides the ultimate protection from the elements. And  Power Armor™ finish system that evenly joins paint particles to the metal surface provides consistent coverage. Both provide exceptional protection on both the generator enclosure and the base frame.
These silent generators have a sound emissions rating of 70 when operating at normal load and a rating of 61 when it is in exercising mode.  Take a look at the chart below to compare decibel levels.

A similar unit is the....

Cummins Power Generation Quiet Connect™ Series
It features........

Advanced Enclosure Design
The aesthetically appealing enclosure incorporates special designs that deliver one of the quietest generators of its kind. Aluminum material plus durable powder coat paint provides the best anti-corrosion performance. The robust design is capable of withstanding winds up to 150 MPH and the intelligent design has removable panels and service doors to provide easy access for service and maintenance.
Flexible Exercise mode 
The innovative, flexible exercise mode enables the generator to exercise at a time, frequency and duration that suits the customer’s preference - as little as 2 minutes every 6 months - reducing unnecessary fuel consumption, emissions and noise.

What do Silent Generators Sound Like?

A backup generator is powered by an engine that is designed similar to a tractor engine or an automobile engine, however, it operates on natural gas for its fuel source.

Silent generators have modifications made to the enclosures that are designed to decrease the sound levels as much as possible. In addition, mufflers are installed to further reduce noise.

During a power outage, most of the residential generators produce between 62dB and 72dB (decibels) of sound under a normal load at about twenty-three feet from the unit.

Many manufacturers have made improvements over the years to reduce the noise.  These are usually categorized by the manufacturer as "quiet" or "silent" generators.  Check the generator spec sheet for the "sound emissions" category to see what is required by your local city code or home owners association.

www.magictolight.com

Portable Gas Generator VS. Standby Generator Cost Breakdown

First, let's define each of these generators.

Portable Gas Generator  This is a generator that you'll have to keep in storage until you need it.  When a power outage occurs, it must be taken out of storage along with an extension cord and plugged into an inlet receptacle hook up. This hookup will go on the outside of your house and will have a male connector (prongs that stick out, rather than holes you plug in to). It will connect to whichever panel system you installed inside your house. This setup is for powering a few appliances like a freezer, fans, or a T.V.

Automatic Standby Generator      This is a generator that automatically senses when the power goes out.  It has an automatic transfer switch that disconnects power from the utility line and connects to the generator.  It does this all within a matter of seconds.  This setup is for a more complete backup such as the whole house or several circuits.

Portable Gas Generator VS. Standby Generator
Cost Breakdown

Generac XG 7000E Portable Unit Spec Sheet

Generac Corepower 7KW Standby Unit Spec Sheet

A portable gas generator generally runs on gasoline.  It is possible to purchase one that runs on LP, but to keep this comparison simple, we'll stick with gasoline for now. We'll compare two generators of like wattage, one a portable and the other a standby unit.

What Causes a Power Outage?

Although you'll never be able to fix the power grid, a generator system can help with power outages that affect you right where you live. 

Why Does My Power Go Out?

Power outages are occurring more frequently than ever and lasting longer.  Heating and cooling, lights, cooking and laundry are part of our everyday modern lifestyles.  It's frustrating when these modern conveniences are immediately gone!

Natural Occurrences - 

• Small animals can also cause power outages. These animals climb on certain pieces of equipment, such as transformers and fuses, causing the equipment to shut down. By shutting down, the equipment protects the rest of the system.
• Weather can also create problems for for power lines.  Lightning can cause outages during storms.  Lightning frequently strikes trees causing branches to fall on power lines.  Ice is another hazard.  It can build up on the lines causing them to snap and fall over.  Flooding can be another problem.  When water builds up, it create damage to underground wires and equipment.  It then needs to be shut down by the power company so it can be repaired.
• Dust is another annoyance.  If you live in an area with sand storms you are especially susceptible to power outages.

Scheduled Maintenance -

• From time to time equipment must be repaired to keep the system working properly. As components near the end of their life, they must be replaced to prevent long term outages.  Your local power company will usually notify you of such an instance.

Human Interference -

• Vehicle and construction accidents are a common cause of power outages. They can result in broken poles, causing power lines to break or touch. Accidental contact with underground or overhead power lines at construction sites can also cause power outages.
• Equipment overload, especially on hot days when air conditioning usage is high, or during extremely cold weather when electric heaters are turned up throughout the electrical system.

Most of the situations above are caused by a short circuit.

Short Circuits:
A short circuit is the most commonly used term to describe the cause of a power failure. What is a short circuit, and how can you protect your equipment from its effects?
A short circuit occurs when an electric current travels along a path that is different from the intended one in an electrical circuit. When this happens, there is an excessive electric current which can lead to circuit damage, fire, and explosion. In fact, short circuits are one of the primary causes of electrical fires throughout the world. 
Why do short circuits occur?Short circuits can occur when the insulation of the wiring used breaks down. It can also occur due to the presence of an external conducting material (such as water) that is introduced accidently into the circuit. Electrical batteries can explode if they are subjected to a large current. Short circuits can even occur when electric motors are forced to operate when the moving parts are jammed. This can result in abnormal buildup of current, ultimately leading to a short circuit.

Generator System

A generator system can assure you power in any power outage scenario.  It remains on standby until you need it.  When it senses that power from the utility source is absent, it will automatically transfer to the generator source fueled by natural gas.   CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION