need electrical advice

[Bugman]

Yes you did get some off the wall advice about wiring a generator. Some is correct and most is incorrect. Now I will try to give you the correct information about wiring it. All the information that you are going to read is from the National Electrical code which is used through the United States, if you follow the informatiopn from the code book you will have a safe electrical job done correctly.

First you have two sources of electricty one from your power company and the other from your generator, which is a seperately derived power source. Yes all the new codes require a four wire connection and it can be done with what you have. You can not wire a generator to your house unless you have a transfer switch, whether manual or automatic . If you do not use one you will have have one house that will go up in smoke after the explosion. The next thing that you need to check is your insurance company and see if they require a licensed eletrician to intall and wire up correctly,which I am sure they do. Remember most electrical fires start during the evening when you are asleep.

Just for information sake about the ground wire Green or Green with yellow stripe is your earth ground and your neutral is the White wire it is not your ground wire. Yes both the white and green are needed for a safe operation of your system and to help insure that there is a potential difference so the breaker will trip or the fuse will blow. In my opinion is would be wise to have a qualified electrician do this for you it will be money well spent. Some of the problem that you are going to run into is wiring sizing issues , ground wire sizing. correct grounding procedures,hot wire sizingissues, breaker sizing as well as gettting it inspected and your permit sign off. If I lived in your area I would be more than glad to sixe it all for you and install it for you at no charge. Now you probably ask what qualification do I have I am a licensed commercial electrcian and I have done a few of them. I know everyone will say it is simple and it is only hooking up wires, but there is more than that and a lot lot of safety issues.. Good luck and please get it done correctly weekend rider

I appreciate your response. But something tells me that a picture of what is actually done would make EC&Ms code violation column! As you and others in the business know you see the damnest things out there.

 

[HotRodZilla]

You guys could make a trip to the toilet sound difficult. Sheesh.

This led me down a weird thought path, AJ. It's pretty mind-blowing. Follow along here:

So, my initial response was gonna be, "Well, no, it's not that difficult, as long as there are enough Peteytrons around to light the way."

Which made me say to myself, "SELF! What would happen if there weren't enough Peteytrons around to light the way."

Which next made me wonder, "Hmm... I wonder what happens to electrical devices in general if there aren't enough Peteytrons in 'em." You know - kinda like what happens when the factory-installed smoke gets outta certain electrical devices.

My only conclusion is that the devices would exhibit unpredictable behavior.

Which led me to a stunning revelation: The reason why Bungie's GPS kept getting us lost in Ottawa during CFR 2010 was because .... here it is - this is huge ... his GPS didn't have enough Peteytrons.

Whoa.

Man am I glad it's Friday - it's gonna take all weekend for me to fully absorb this. Sometimes I amaze myself...

Yeahbutt, peteytrons don't really hang out in GPS units. Its a special exception, cuz Petey don't need no dammed GPS cuz he can never get lost. This is because Petey doesn't have to find a place. The place has to find Petey...and his trons.

Now...let that blow your mind for a bit.

 

[odot]

Genius....pure genius.

...but you forgot to change your pumpkin oil during your battery change.

 

[Bustanut joker]

Keep prodding him you fukin jackholes...

 

[weekend rider]

I am posting this answer about part of what Makuna said about a Floating neutral.

There is no such thing as a floating neutral in an electrical system.

The other thing of concern the green and white wires on bond together ant the main panel than never again if you run a subpanel or disconnect. Also the green ground from the main panel does not connect to the generator. The generator is a seperately derived electrical source and must have its own ground rod sized correctly and grounded to the generator at its ground terminal (green). I know this sounds petty, but the ground must be run correctly to work properly. for you to have that potential difference to trip a breaker

 

[Makuna]

I am posting this answer about part of what Makuna said about a Floating neutral. There is no such thing as a floating neutral in an electrical system. The other thing of concern the green and white wires on bond together ant the main panel than never again if you run a subpanel or disconnect. Also the green ground from the main panel does not connect to the generator. The generator is a seperately derived electrical source and must have its own ground rod sized correctly and grounded to the generator at its ground terminal (green). I know this sounds petty, but the ground must be run correctly to work properly. for you to have that potential difference to trip a breaker

Floating neutral is the Term used to describe how the generator has the neutral and ground wired inside it, as in not connected. If they are connected inside, its called a Bonded Neutral. As you described is the core issue to be concerned with.