generator


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Old 01-29-09, 02:10 PM
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generator

I am hooking up a 6500 watt generator for emergency use when the power goes out. The well water pump house has a 30 amp 240 volt line going to it so I am hooking up a 4-wire 30 amp cord to it. What I did was cut into the line and put a female end on one side and a male end on the other side, and when the power is on the two sides stay together. When the power goes off I will disconnect the two sides and run a 50 ft. 240 volt extension cord to it. That should make a circuit to run the pump house. However, when I test ran it I couldn't get the pump to go on even though there was power to the pump house. After I hook up the extension cord I still have about 100 ft. of the original line to the pump house, therefore it's about 150 ft. altogether for the power line. Would that distance draw too many amps so as not to allow the well pump to go on?
 
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Old 01-29-09, 02:28 PM
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Does the pump have 4 wires or just 3? Is it possible that you wired something wrong and it's only 120 volts going to it?

What causes the pump to cut on/off a pressure switch, starter?
 
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Old 01-29-09, 02:52 PM
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The 6500W generator is probably not big enough to start a pump on a 30A circuit, especially given the distance. For this size breaker, the pump would be in the 2.5 - 3 HP range? Either that or the breaker is oversized.

240V * 30A = 7200W pump > 6500W generator

You'll probably need at least an 8kW but probably more like a 10kW to start the pump.

In addition to the 150' of cable above ground, how deep is the pump? What AWG are the wires?
 
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Old 01-30-09, 02:10 PM
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wirenut

I'm not sure if the pump has three or four wires; I will have to check it out. It looks to be run by a pressure switch. There are four wires going to the pump house; one each of white, green, black, and red. I hooked up a four wire extension cord with 30 amp SJ cord and I know I have juice from the generator to the line heading to the pump house. However, I don't know if the pump is 120 v or 240 v. The 220 line to the pump house runs into a knife switch box and from there it goes to the pump and perhaps to the pressure switch. Could that be correct? Inside the knife switch are a pair of 20 amp circuit breakers but I haven't open up that box yet to try to see where the leads go from there. Perhaps it's a 120 volt pump; I don't know yet.
 
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Old 01-30-09, 02:27 PM
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Most likely the cord caps were not listed for use with the cable you installed them on.
 
 

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