Using the WEN 3800 Inverter Generator to power my home. Needed equipment found at Amazon below. Interlock Kit at Amazon www.amazon.com... Generator Inlet Box at Amazon www.amazon.com... 30amp to 50amp adaptor at Amazon www.amazon.com...
What you are not explaining, which honestly is one of the most important points, is that you are taking a 120v generator output, and splitting that feed, which is feeding both legs of your panel 120v single phase. In turn, all 120v house circuits will then work...but also none of the 240v would work...which is fine in most cases. I would suggest a few changes in your start-up process. Turn off all 240v breakers, turn off all refrigerators and electronics breakers, and keep the generator breaker off until the generator is up and running. Then turn on the generator breaker and then the refrigerator breakers. Keep all 240v breakers off until the generator is removed and normal power restored. Don't crank up the generator with live circuits that will be under load.
Hi,I’m not an expert but I think you need to first start the generator, let it warm and stabilize and only after that go to your panel and start loading it one circuit at a time. I have a smaller generator but it can handle all my essentials
Just received my WEN 3800 inverter generator. I'm looking at fuel conversion kits for natural gas for a endless fuel source. Natural gas has never let me down during outages. You are doing exactly what I've been doing only power necessities. Clean and simple install nice work.
You need to tell your viewers that that generator only puts out 120VAC! You have a 50/2 pole breaker but you can only put one leg from the generator into it. This means only one phase of your panel is energized! All the breakers/ loads you want on need to be on that phase. Start generator, shed loads, turn off main & 50/2 pole on & turn on breakers. Good luck!
Great video. FYI…the new WEN 3800 now comes with remote start/shut off. I sold my inverter like yours and miss it but will be buying the new version on the next sale.
I have purchased a slightly larger wen generator the 4500 W generator. These smaller generators aren’t like normal generators. They only put out 120 V. The much larger and noisier gasoline powered generators usually put out 240 V and 120 V. So my question is I see that you can power both sides of your electrical panel. I was wondering how the electrician wired your generator in to do that? I have my house set up With a larger 240 V 9400 W generator. It’ll power the whole house no problem, everything all at the same time but boy is it noisy. I also would like to hook up my house the same way you did yours and just cut off the items I don’t need , and have it a lot quieter. So if you could reply back and give me some idea how you could split off 120 V generator to power both sides of your electrical panel I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Bob Phelan.
It's very simple. You wire the inlet power box as normal for 240V. You purchase a short converter cord (as shown in this video) that takes the generator 120v output and splits it into two separate 120v feeds. If you won't be needing any 240v circuits this is actually more efficient that running 240v and only using 120v circuits. The reason its more efficient is that you are only having to manage total load, rather than two individual loads (per leg). Hope that makes sense.
Any reason you didn’t just buy a 30 AMP intel box instead of the 50 AMP box? Wouldn’t that eliminate the adapter? Getting ready to do this and just wanted to know the reason. Could it be that you wanted the option to upgrade to a generator that requires 50 AMP? Also, is the circuit breaker you are using 30AMP or 50AMP?
Smart thing to do is obviously go bigger on the inlet you do this incase you need to run a 10000 plus generator to run the hvac system …. A 30 amp wouldn’t be able to start the a/c it’s common sense
I'm sure it didn't work out well. The two legs powered by the generator are in phase, so there will be no voltage across them. None of the electrical that requires 220v would work. A 30 amp RV outlet is only 110v single phase. To do this properly, he needs a generator with a 30 amp 220v outlet and cords that are not for RVs.
During our last outage I was able to run the circuits for both kitchen and garage fridges, septic pumps, all lights interior and exterior circuits, multiple TV's, and use of gas furnace. The one thing I didn't try, that I would like to experiment more with, is the electric hot water heater we've got. But, this is only a 30 amp Gen circuit, so wouldn't attempt with the rest of that load. Handled the rest without problems, and ran it in eco for a few days.
