Use onboard Onan to power house in emergency?
So I was thinking, hey, I got a fancy schmancy Onan, built right into the camper, so why would I need to buy some portable unit to run various things in the house during an emergency?! So I grab my...
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I have my house wired to run off the camper too. I use the microwave outlet because I know it's a 20 amp circuit. My gen. is only 2,500 watts so that's all I need. I have a separate breaker panel installed with the important circuits: ref., freezer, well, etc. I have an autotransformer to make 240v from my generator's 120v output to power the well pump. This set up works quite well for me.
FSAD, don't back-feed the panel!!
Male/male cords are called suicide cords for a reason. You have a very high potential of having energized prongs laying around. If someone forgets and has the main breaker and the gen. breaker on at the same time you will be putting thousands of volts out onto the utility lines. This has a high probability of getting a lineman killed. If the utility comes back on in this condition it will likely damage your generator.
Proper, code compliant transfer panels are not that expensive and really convenient. I try to convince all of my customers to have one installed in every house that I wire.
FSAD, don't back-feed the panel!!
Male/male cords are called suicide cords for a reason. You have a very high potential of having energized prongs laying around. If someone forgets and has the main breaker and the gen. breaker on at the same time you will be putting thousands of volts out onto the utility lines. This has a high probability of getting a lineman killed. If the utility comes back on in this condition it will likely damage your generator.
Proper, code compliant transfer panels are not that expensive and really convenient. I try to convince all of my customers to have one installed in every house that I wire.
