Thanks guys! Truly an HONOR indeed to get the thumbs from you folks.

Much of the BX in those photos were temp, coming off the gang box (RH top) used to splice from the old panel... all gone now... that 200A panel has a lot more BX in it, almost full.

Rewired, how do you feel about Briggs units? I've only dealt with Onan, Generac and occasionally Kohler. I find Briggs' "Empower" load management interesting... allowing larger loads to be started if the genny has spare power:

[Linked Image from homegeneratorsystems.com]

Briggs & Stratton Transfer Switches

IWire, that's unreal. Unless the genny was used for life saving equipment, I can't understand why genny sizing would be of any concern for the NEC. As long as all safety aspects of wiring them are met, like cable sizing, grounding, bonding, disconnects, OPCD and so forth are met - and accordingly the installation is safe - what POSSIBLY could be the issue, other than sitting in the dark?

One thing I have found is that gennys are often grossly OVERSIZED - much like what you see with HVAC. It almost breaks my heart when I see a 45Kw genny in some of these McMansions powering only one of two 200A panels, when it's got more than enough juice to power both. I guess it's to be understood, genny dealers don't want to be in the position of not having a system guaranteed to work then have to deal with lawyers.

Two suppliers we buy gennys from told me my 12Kw application would NEVER work. I would need at least a 20Kw to 25Kw unit, and even still I should forget about central air - would have to go even bigger... on my humble little 1,100 SF home. To this day, I never mention anything about my set-up working perfectly. Generac recently started branding their gensets on how large of a central A/C unit they will start. Their 10 kW unit can supposedly "start a 3-ton AC with power to spare". That would be unheard of from a typical genny dealer. Briggs & Stratton is doing this too. Apparently all this fear about central A/C starting was way overblown.

It should also be noted that central A/C systems that normally won't start with a genny can often be "coaxed" into doing so with hard/soft start kits and staggered start-up of the condenser fan (lowering head pressure), compressor, then air handler.

I also wonder if this provision actually will go though with pressure from manufacturers. After all, what's gonna happen with all those larger capacity and likely higher margin ATS units?

Then there's also the practical issue of "calculated load" as a code requirement. That I'm sure is gonna spark fireworks with AHJ's and contractors. Oh, I can just see it know, "Fine, that panel says 200A so I want a 48Kw generator installed, period. Either pull that 30Kw unit out, or put in a dedicated 100A subpanel in or I'm gonna have the whole service red-tagged." Should be interesting...

Not arguing, code will be code I suppose... just venting because it doesn't make sense.

Joe