RV to power home temp

Johnny Hurryup wrote:
I have a few times. I just made a power cord with two male ends. FIRST..extremely important... shut off your main incoming circuit breaker in your home's panel. Then plug your motorhome's cord into the closest outlet in your home. Now half of the homes outlets will be powered. If it isn't the outlets you need, try plugging it into a different outlet. You will be back-feeding electricity to one of the two buss bars in your panel. One other thing, flip off any 220 volt breakers that are in your panel.( water heater, elec stove , well pump, clothes dryer etc)

PLEASE do not do this! PLEASE, PLEASE, pretty PLEASE do not advocate others do it! This is the dangerous and illegal way of doing things.

It's dangerous because you have a cord that, should it come unplugged accidentally, has exposed live prongs. It's also dangerous because you're relying on a human remembering to properly flip the breakers to be safe for the linemen etc. and human memory is not reliable. On occasion, people doing things like this cause other people to be injured or killed.

It's illegal because the NEC requires some approved positive means of transfer switching between separate power sources--which means either a dedicated transfer switch of some sort, or an approved mechanical interlock device for the breakers (making them the transfer switch), etc.

If you cannot or will not install an approved transfer switching system, then the only safe way to use a portable generator in a permanent house (with a hardwired connection to the electric utility) is to skip the building electrical system entirely and use extension cables to power whatever needs power. For an RV or perhaps a mobile home you could also plug the unit into the generator, given the appropriate cables and connectors, in which case it's of course no longer connected to the electric utility.