If you try to wire your generator to your breaker box as a DIY project, you probably will not be in compliance with local electrical codes. Also know that it's extremely dangerous. For example, if your ground wiring is not done properly, you may inadvertently put 200+ volts on 120 volt lines, immediately frying bulbs and electronics connected to those lines, and potentially starting fires. Don't do it.
In addition to all that, don't use a double-male cable to just plug a generator in to your house. Don't. You can kill people that way.
Yes, that need a bigger disclaimer. A huge one in fact.
As well as the extreme importance of having a 'generator interlock' - something that physically disconnects your house from the power grid, so you aren't electrifying external power lines (lines that people expect to not be electrified when the power is turned off).
It's also important to remember if you're DIYing the project, that if your neighbour didn't use a generator interlock, your wiring may have enough power to make you need a trip to the hospital.
Seriously, speaking as someone who has worked as an electrician. Unless you're experienced, don't play with it.
> that if your neighbour didn't use a generator interlock, your wiring may have enough power to make you need a trip to the hospital.
If that happened you would know because your lights were on.
And what would actually happen is nothing, because the generator circuit breaker would blow from trying to power the entire neighborhood.
The only way this could happen is if you were right at the end of the feeder line, and managed to down a line such that only you and your neighbor were online - in which case enjoy the free power. (And then yell at your neighbor to fix it.)
Do things properly, sure, but don't over estimate the danger.
Your neighbor's house would still only have 120V on the lines, and they probably shouldn't be sticking knives in the electric socket just because the power is out. The real problem is that the pole transformer will step that power up to whatever higher voltage is normally feeding it and linemen may be in the middle of working on the downed lines.
It's literally only DIYable by someone who has enough experience that they could do it professionally. Installing your own generator interlock is no easy feat. Installing companion wiring for a generator, again, is no easy feat.
Easiest permanent DIY job would be to wire a dedicated outlet to your fridges and freezers and any important electrical equipment, and switch them to the generator outlet when you need it. No crossing circuits, no real problems.
If you have no electrical experience, deal with the extension cords.
People warn about this all the time, but if you actually tried to do it, the generator would instantly trip its breaker since there is no way it can power an entire neighborhood.
For a normal installation - definitely, do it properly. But in an emergency? Just turn off your main breaker.
The thing to remember about the NEC is that it contains redundant safeties and huge margins because things are wired up once and then taken for granted for decades, even as assumptions change. You're most likely not going to kill anybody by backfeeding power through a branch circuit. You're most likely not going to burn down your house using 14-2 for the stove. You're most likely not going to electrocute anybody by tying the ground and neutral of a receptacle together. But when the failure mode is structure fire and/or death, do you really want to make a long term bet on 'most likely' ?
Its also worth saying not to run your generator in doors and not even in the garage. People die every year in Florida from Carbon-monoxide poisoning this way.
(at least every year there is a hurricane).
It is probably less of an issue up north since people are probably leaving their windows open rather than having them shut and the AC on, but it is worth repeating.
Open windows won't save you from CO out of a generator. A local family was in the hospital from CO poisioning after Sandy because they ran a generator in their garage. The gararge door was open, but the generator was near the house door. That was enough to allow CO to enter their house.
> It is probably less of an issue up north since people are probably leaving their windows open rather than having them shut and the AC on, but it is worth repeating.
Wouldn't they be wanting to heat their houses, instead?
