Herms Q on generator

I am in the same boat. I went to home depot, they sell this panel with 6 fuses and amp meters -- $238 -- but who needs that? From what I have learned but am hesitant to do, you have to locate the circuit for your furnace on your main panel and splice off that to a new panel which is hooked up to your generator. Open the circuit on the main panel when the power goes out, and close the circuit on the new panel.

Which generator did you get? I got the Coleman 5000, peeked at 6250. It has a locking outlet, plus 4 three prong outlets - individually fused. I was going to place a weather resistant box for the locking outlet (at home depot) and wire that to the dedicated panel.

Let me know what you do. I'll be watching the posts, I hope someone can help....

 

You CANNOT hook the gen to the panel without a transfer switch. If you do not want the switch put a plug and recept on your furnace so you can hook on and get a couple of cords for the things you want to run. As often as its needed that is as good as option as anything. I dont usually turn on my power for outage unless it is goint to be extensive or I have critical business as my POCO has a policy of having most fixed in 2 hours. I wait those out.

 

The panel that you can buy at the home depot, acts as a transfer switch for each of the branch circuit breakers you want to power up. Don't splice circuits together, allowing the possibility of your generator to accidently backfeed the utility grid.

 

I know the panel you are describing. I installed one for my sister. You don't have to turn anything off in your panel. The "box" with the 6 switches and the meters is a transfer switch (6 separate switches actually) and does all the switching for you. You pick the 6 most crictical circuits you want to backup when the power goes out and hook them into the transfer switch.