Many of us down here in Hurricane Land have smaller generators with two 110v outlets. We buy a 50' or 100' roll of 12 gauge three wire house wiring cable, cut it in two, and put heavy duty plugs on both ends. We pull the main breakers and flip all the other breakers off, turn off "everything" in the house, plug the two extensions in what we hope are the two separate legs receptacles, and crank up the generator. A little experimenting with flipping on breakers and lights and such can verify that. We turn on refrigerators, freezers, fans, a TV, and the lights we'll need after calculating their wattages. We check for overloads on the (15 ga) outlets connected to the generator by feeling them occasionally. If they're running hot, we try other outlets or run an extension from a refrigerator or TV, for example, to a plug on the other leg. We don't try to run heavy appliances or even hot plates without turning off some other appliance like a refrigerator or freezer temporarily.
With the long cables we can keep the generator far enough away from the house so there won't be a problem with CO. Gerry .................................................... From: "Tom Hargrave" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > You also need a generator that is wired for 240 VAC, center tapped and the > center tap goes to ground (neutral). If you don't wire the center tap to > ground correctly then an unbalanced load will burn some lights dim & burn > some lights out. > > Thanks, > Tom Hargrave > www.kegkits.com > 256-656-1924 > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > On Behalf Of Kaleb C. Striplin, work > Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 8:23 AM > To: Mercedes Discussion List > Subject: Re: [MBZ] generator > > AH HA. Thats kind of what I was thinking. The neighbor next door wired > their gen into the house and I was sort of looking at it and it looks like > they replaced one of the outlets in their garage with a 240 or whatever > drier type outlet. IIRC, the regular house outlets with 2 outlets have 2 > sets of wires. I assume they would have wired both sets of wires into the > same drier type outlet? Is that what the 4 prongs are on those? Sorry, I > am completely electrical stupid. > > --- > Kaleb C. Striplin > Cox Auto Trader > 730-Tulsa FSBO Supervisor > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jim Cathey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com> > Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 8:18 AM > Subject: Re: [MBZ] generator > > >>> outlets and had lights to half the house. Tried another outlet and had >>> lights to the other half of the house. Wonder why it only would do >>> half? >> >> Because the typical US home is fed with 240V, center-tapped >> off the supply transformer. >> >> That gives you two 120V halves of the house. You happened >> to use one outlet on each (electrical) side. Adjacent breakers >> in the fuse panel tap alternate halves. That's why 240V >> breakers are double-high, they pick up both halves together. >> That's why back-feeding one of the 240V outlets gets it all. >> >> -- Jim >> >> >> _______________________________________ >> http://www.okiebenz.com >> For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ >> For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ > For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ > For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.17.0/1180 - Release Date: > 12/10/2007 2:51 PM > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
