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Water pump and furnace emergency electrical connections

To: Shop-Talk List <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: Water pump and furnace emergency electrical connections
From: Preston Smith <prbasmith@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 13:52:48 -0400
Good day all!

Happy New Year!

Here I go again.

I do not have the cash to install a generator isolation device in my 
home at the moment but as we go into winter I would like to have at 
least the water pump and hot water furnace able to run off of my generator.

Knowing that the key thing is to protect workmen who are restoring the 
mains, I propose the following.

Each of the pump and furnace have their own separate 110v/15 amp 
circuits running from the breaker panel through a switch (fused in the 
case of the furnace) to the device

As an interim measure, does the following make sense?

Each circuit looks like this

breaker - switch - pump or furnace

I propose cutting each circuit between the breaker and switch, and 
installing a suitably rated three prong female plug on the breaker side 
of the cut and a three prong male plug on the switch side of the cut.  
This would give me the ability, during power outages, to kill the 
breaker, unplug the device, and then plug it into a 12/3 extension cord 
running from my generator

Does this approach make sense and is it legal?  The ability to unplug 
the device from the mains gives the necessary air gap between locally 
generated power and the mains.

Should I cut the line between the switch and the device instead of 
between the switch and the breaker?

Thanks for your input.

Preston




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