Ice storm in NC yesterday, power out for who knows how long, running on our standby generator. Some back ground information: 5000W gasoline generator - 2 120V sockets (standard), 2 240V sockets (standard, 1 hot prong 90 deg. to the other) - neither are twist-to-lock. When running, generator is grounded by low gauge heavy wire to nearby separate 10' ground rod. Deep well water pump - 250' deep, 220V pump motor When the power is out for days (like it will be now...), we typically run the well once per day for an hour or two, do all our 'water tasks' for the day then. Rest of the time its the furnace or a window A/C, lights, refrig, etc. - I run on extension cords, so I unplug all of those before setting up for water. I made up a cord for the generator & well water pump years ago just from Romex with a 220V standard plug on one end (2 hots and a ground), and I direct-wire it to the infeed/line side terminals at the pressure switch (disconnecting and isolating of course the feed from the panel). From that point, the pressure switch cycles the pump motor on/off as needed to keep the pressure tank filled. I have probably needed to do this 3 times in the past 10 years. The first two times, everything worked fine - before, during, and after the use of the generator. The last time I tried, a year or so ago, I hooked everything up as usual, but the water pump wouldn't start. It didn't make sense, thought maybe I had connected something wrong at the pressure switch, went to get my meter to see if I was getting 120+V from the generator at each leg at/after the pressure switch, when the power came back on. Pressure switch and pump motor have worked fine since then on line power. This morning I hooked everything back up again to try to run the pump - nothing. I have 133+/-V at each 220 leg at the generator socket (hot-to-ground), and I have 133+/-V at the LOAD side of the pressure switch - so there are no breaks in the Romex or plug, and the pressure switch is pulled in connecting to the pump.... But the pump won't start, same as last time.... Yet this exact same setup has worked fine, as expected, in the past. I'm stumped - am I missing something? Thanks in advance for ANY help or suggestions you have.

I'm looking to add a new smoke detector to my existing hard-wired circuit. The circuit is 15A and shared with some light fixtures. When inspecting the existing smoke detectors, I saw that they are fed with NM-8 cable. Why would they have used such a heavy gauge? Any reason I can't just tie in with 14/3 and run to my new detector?