7 Backup Generator Mistakes. (Have You Made One?) 

What gage wire you need for a 220 generator extension cord

@@iancameron198 It depends on the amperage not the voltage. The most common size of portable generator connection is 30A which would require 10 gauge wire. Some people may have a larger generator with a 50A feed which would require 8 gauge or possibly 6 gauge depending on the wire insulation.

Wow, thank you so much. I do put a lot of work into every video but I never get tired of hearing wonderful comments like yours. So happy to have you onboard.

Agree!

Great tip! I do the same thing.

I shut mine off at night, IF, it’s not freezing out (New Hampshire winter outages are a thing) and I don’t need my furnace running. Otherwise it runs throughout the night which keeps me on edge a bit so I don’t tend to sleep as well.

Good plan my friend.

Awesome, thank you! I have some interesting videos coming up. I hope you like them.

Thank you and Great Point. Even with my decades of experience I still have a procedure at the panel. I have actually written them for friends and family as well. Thanks so much for you comment.

I also suggest using a (D)battery fuel transfer stick pump to avoid spills (we have all fought those fill spouts) . Places like Harbor Freight have them for under $15

Ahh a Navy man.. Thanks for your service. 🇺🇸

I appreciate that my friend. Thanks so much for watching and commenting.

Wow. Sounds like a great setup. I need to do something like that to make things easier. Safety is number one for sure. My father and brother in-law both worked for the power company as lineman. Im retired now but I worked as an electrician and then an electrical engineer my whole career.

@@BackyardMaine That’s awesome that your family is involved in the power industry! I applaud you & your family for the dedication & strong work ethic to succeed. I’m sure you have heard it many times before. Not many people can do our jobs. The long hours of commitment & the family that backs us up. I had help from the substation electricians at work. I was getting ready to pull the trigger on a more comprehensive set up & they stopped me. I purposely bought our home on a backbone. So we hardly ever lose power. We are on a loop scheme so in the event we lose the feed from one substation. Power can be restored quickly through reclosures in a manner of minutes. No lineman or electricians are involved. Unless the wire burns down in front of my house? We almost always stay on. In the unlikely event we lose both feeds do we lose power all together. That’s where the back up power comes into play at our house. As you know the last persons you want to be calling you at work is your family. I made my set up “lineman proof”. My wife can flip a few switches & push one button & power is restored quickly at our house. The only time I get a call is to check on how I’m doing after being at work for more than 24 hours. It’s peace of mind for me. You can’t put a price on that? Again thanks for the great tutorial & thank your father & brother in-law for being lineman .

I'm going to dedicate a video to generator grounding. There is a lot of confusion around that and many get it wrong. It depends on the bonding of the neutral at the generator and at the main panel. Is the generator a separately derived system or not. Stay tuned for a video on that subject.

Thanks you Matt and Great suggestion! I'll add that to my content list.

@@BackyardMaine If you are interested on the thoughts I have come up with on this matter: 1. Focus on small 120V inverter based propane generators - Propane lasts forever, so no worries about it going bad. Burns cleaner, so less crudding up of your generator. Something like a TT-30 or NEMA L5-30 extension cord can usually power the basics and even a 120V window or portable air conditioner. (Having a cool room to go to in a summer time power outage is a lot better than it is just sizzling anywhere you go inside. Even on normal days, it can save a lot of power to have the room you spend the most time in cooler than the other rooms that you then let float a little high so that say you whole home HVAC is not cranking away so hard at running up your power bill.) 2. For the kitchen in particular, have some sort of battery - inverter setup that can be charged off of the generator. The problem I have hit with my small generator testing is most everything in the kitchen, at least my kitchen, hard starts / suddenly draws a big load. This doesn't work out too well with small generators that have a relatively low amount of spinning mass to absorb those hits until the engine can ramp up. Also for piece of mind, it is much nicer to have the fridge powered all the time while it is a big gas guzzler to run the generator all the time. Granted most fridges should be able to make it up to 10 hours before things thaw out and start expiring, I think most would be more comfortable with a constant or near constant supply and especially not have to micromanage power to their fridge and hope they don't screw up and then have to dump a bunch of food into the trash. If the generator is hooked up to automatically charge the battery when it is running, maybe you just run the generator a handful of hours throughout the day on ECO mode (as the charger will more or less draw constant power) or at least shut it off overnight to save fuel and make less noise. Plus if it is still super stormy outside as you mention weather in this video, you may only be able to use the battery - inverter setup at first until the storm passes. (Maybe if it is not too bad out, you put a table over the inverter-generator as these fully enclosed units just suck in air in the front and spit out exhaust and hot cooling air out the back.) Then you may have a long power outage time as cleanup happens after the storm that you run the generator in and charge this back up. Personally, I am a bit of a fan of having separate components for inverter, battery, and charger so you can customize each component to your needs on the cheap, but all in one boxes are also common these days as you briefly mention in this video. 3. There are some ways to do extension cords right and ways to make for a dangerous setup. For one, most of these small inverter generators are floating neutral. It is important to setup a ground-neutral bond. I did the "easy button" of building a TT-30 adapter cable only for use with the generator that has this ground-neutral bond. Then I have a separate long TT-30 extension cord to pull into the house so the generator can be setup out in the open. In case I want to use this long extension cord for something besides the generator, it is still in its stock configuration and so will be fine. Only the specially built adapter cable can only be used with the generator. I have found without this ground-neutral bond, inverter generator power can become 'dirty' and cause my electronics to glitch up. So in addition to safety, it is actually rather important for your electronics to function properly on generator power. The UPSes I use also complain if the bond is missing as now their surge protection function cannot work. With a generator backup solution like this, you have to have a UPS capable of riding through a power outage long enough for you to get the generator power coming into the house and to the electronics or else they will lose power. In real power outages, my main UPS has reported ~30% of its battery capacity used by the time I got it onto generator power when I have been home during the outage. Another thing that I did was to build a special adapter cable to hook generator ground into house ground using lighted plugs so I can see when generator power is present and I can see when house power comes back. There is only a ground wire going between ground prongs, so power cannot pass, it is NOT a suicide cable without these additional wires. This way everything, including all of my electronics that often have conducting copper Ethernet cables running between them are tied to the same ground voltage reference potential. I have noticed with analog audio cables running between devices that without this common ground, it will pickup a significant electronic hum for my speaker output. So yeah, a good common ground can help things out right away with your audio equipment if you still have analog stuff in the loop. In the worst case scenario, it will prevent static discharge between devices, which with electronics can lead to equipment that no longer works.

Thank you Ed..

You bet! Thanks for watching. If you know someone who will benefit from this info please pass it along..

You bet. Thanks so much for watching and commenting.

My pleasure!

Thanks so much!

Thank you very much! If you know someone that would benefit from this information please share it with them. Maybe we can save a life..

Thanks Luc.. Hope all is well up north my friend. 👍

Awesome, thank you!

Awesome, thank you! I appreciate comments like yours. Welcome to the channel. I have another video going live tomorrow.

My pleasure. Thanks for watching.

Thank you very much!

Thank you!

My pleasure. Please share it if you know someone who could benefit from the information.

Thank you my friend. Much appreciated. Where are you living now?

@@BackyardMaine Richmond, VA. Lived in ME for 20 years. Maybe I'll make it back. Take care.

Awesome, thank you!

@@BackyardMaine if future videos are even half as informative, no. Thank you. That was a great video. I'm hoping towards saving up for an under an acre to live on. I'llhave to check back on these if they teach me anything. Again, thx, and sorry I need your help.

As long as you have a mechanical device that prevent the generator breaker and the main from being turned on at the same time I think you're fine. The one I bought for my panel is not uL listed.

I'm going to dedicate a video to generator grounding. There is a lot of confusion around that and many get it wrong. It depends on the bonding of the neutral at the generator and at the main panel. Is the generator a separately derived system or not. Stay tuned for a video on that subject.

Thanks Mike.. Doing well here. I hope all is well for you and your wife in the wild and wonderful north.

Hi Jerry.. It depends on whether the neutral is bonded to ground or you have a floating neutral. If the generator is connected as a separately derived system then a ground rod or other bond to ground would be required. I will add that to my content list.

Yes, for sure. Back feeds are not a good idea.

I have seen a few home made generator housings with the exhaust piped out.

I have never owned a propane powered generator but I do certainly like the idea. I think they are safer, and you can probably get through most outages without needing to fill the tank. I also like the idea of inverter generators which use less fuel and provide much cleaner power allowing you to confidently use your computers and other electronic devices.

A manual transfer switch works fine but so does using an interlock kit which also passes code.

Thank you.. Much appreciated.

Yes but most of the time that's not required. I plan on make a video on ground connections to the generator and most importantly the importance of knowing whether you need a bonded neutral at the generator or a separation between neutral and ground. Some electricians still don't understand this clearly enough to make the proper determination. I will try to get that video made this summer. It's more than I can cover in the comments. Stay tuned.

I have had that request many times now so I will plan a video on that subject in the near future.

I'll make a video on that subject soon..

Scary stuff.. I'm sure it happens a lot.

Yes thank you.. 🇺🇸

Actually that is an illegal connection. The reason is it depends on you cycling the breaker in the correct order rather than a mechanical interlock. I'm sure you know how to do it correctly but it's risky and illegal in all 50 states.

Yes, That's when you want to do that. If your generator connection cannot handle the whole house what I recommend is shutting off all your breakers, turn on your generator breaker and bring the loads you're going to run one at a time. Inductive loads have inrush so I bring the on first so I won't stall the generator. The well pump, then I wait maybe 30 seconds and I turn on the boiler. Once the burner is running I bring on my other loads one after the other.

@@BackyardMaine ....thanks......i have the champion 7800......had it for 11 years.....change the oil often......the only problem i had was the battery brackets'welds broke off the frame from the vibration and i found the battery on the ground.....i may fix it but i like pulling the cord better......

@@Joe-pb3lx I have had to run mine for several days this year and also last year. It's starting to get a little engine knock so I'm not sure how much longer it will last. I have changed the oil several times as well. it's about 15-20 years old.

@@BackyardMaine ...yeah same here with the use......id try some Seafoam in your gas tank.....read the can directions to see how much you need for your size gas tank......id try that first, then if that doesnt do anything try Berryman's in your tank.....i tried berrymans in my chevy truck that had a loud lifter sound and after 2 tank fulls it went away.....you can get both at walmart for the cheapest price......berrymans is only like 5 bucks a can.....good luck

@@Joe-pb3lx Thank you. I give that a try. I really don't want to buy a new generator right now. I have a new battery power station with an automatic transfer switch to hook up in the next couple of weeks. It was gifted by a brand. I'm going to run it through some testes. I curious how long it will run the house before the batteries die. The batteries are expandable as well. Probably be good for outages that last less than 24 hours. I be making that video in a few weeks.

I have been guilty of that one as well....

Yes about 30 minutes from there..

Not mine but some do. It depends on the neutral and ground configuration. I'll make a video on the subject very soon.

Nope..?

Wow!! That is a scary story. I guess the angles were looking over you on that day. I worked in large industry most of my career and there are plenty of cases where people were not and fortunate. Thanks for sharing.

I get the same pushy people at my door all the time trying to push solar. Drive me nuts. I had to get rude with the last guy because he wouldn't;t take no for an answer. He actually said I'm not leaving until we come to an agreement. That when things went south. lol. It totally fine to power the whole electrical panel with your 7800 watt generator. Just be selective about what you run when power is on generator. I've been doing it for years.

Yes. The utility or street power needs to be disconnected before a generator feed can be connected. This interlock is required for the reasons I talk about in the video.

You've got that right.

I’ll take the extra walk rain or shine.

We seem to get a lot of wind when the power goes out. I'm not sure a tent is the answer but I have never seen them in action.

@@BackyardMaine It is a product designed to clamp directly onto the generator, often times designed for a specific family of units in collaboration with the manufacturer of the generator. Mine stayed in place during tropical storm force winds and survived winter in the Bangor area. They also have a skirt to keep the electrical / control panel as dry as possible.

Noooo… noooooo….squirrels are smarter than the general public….

Do you realize that if you were to make a mistake connecting a generator in this way and someone was killed you would not only be liable from a lawsuit perspective but you would be criminally liable as well. I can make the connections as well but I learned a long time ago than anyone can make a mistake.

I may have mentioned that and also showed them in the video.