Hi;
I need a point of information here for a connection from a Generator transfer switch to a connection box.
I recently bought a B&S 8000 watt generator that supplies power at at 30 Amps. I intend to put a connection box in the garage and have 10-3 copper wire connect to a Reliance Q310A 10 circuit transfer switch.
I was intending to use the 10-3 copper building wire ( same as at the Orange box) and protect it in conduit. From the connector to the switch is approximately 32 feet. Will 1/2 inch conduit be right or should I go to 3/4"?
I am having a licensed electrician do the actual connections and am attempting to save some money by doing some of the grunt work myself.

 

You don't usually use cable in conduit. You use THWN/THHN individual conductors. It's best to let the electrician supply what he needs.

 

Thanks, I was just pricing things out that is the main reason I was asking. It feasibly works out better, as you say, to let him supply the material, besides the panel. The excess will just go to waste as the run is smaller than the available lengths and as the saying goes, "six of one half a dozen of another".

I was wondering about the conduit only as a protection method and/or stripping the wire from the thin containment cover to produce the individual wires to put in the conduit.

I'll just let him do it. Thanks again.

 

That would be a code violation because the wires in the cable are not rated for use outside the cable.

So long as it is just short lengths such as where cable comes out of the ground that is OK. It just is not best practice to use it in a complete conduit system, though by NEC it would not be non-compliant. NEC AFAIK is silent on that.

If I may get a bit Dutch Uncle on you based on what you have written so far I don't think your skill level and knowledge is high enough for what you propose. A good electrician may end up pulling out your work and redoing it to code and his satisfaction. That could cost more in the long run.

However this can be a DIY project. If you give us all the info we can tell what materials are best and walk you through it.

 

"Dutch uncle!" Haven't heard that phrase in awhile!!! No offense taken on this at all. I was just trying out ideas as I don't have a copy of the NEC and was trying to gleam from other posts about this since I wasn't that cocksure. I didn't think that stripping for individual wire even sounded right, but believe it or not that is what I saw at another site. Left there real quick, the advice being offered there sounded like recipes for disaster.
The idea for conduit, I was only thinking of safety as it would only be energized in the need of a emergency and in the dark, or dim light, the strangest things can happen.
I have several area electricians coming in for a "meet and greet, price is right?" review This week including one recommended to me by a friend who rehabs old houses and the fellow is the one he uses.

 

Sounds good. If any questions after the greet and meet come back and we'll try to answer them.