ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Generator interface

I hope all are haveing a great Holiday season! The best for the New Year!

Now, After the rash of bad weather here and the power outages, I've had a lot of calls for The manual transfers for Portable Generators.I use 10 ckt panels.
Most are straight forward- Prewired nippled to the panel-10/3 to the garage and an outside box.
Yesterday I ran across an elderly lady who does not want to go to the basement to turn them on.
So my thought is to place the switch in the garage.
How ever this would require 20 12s' in conduit (switch legs)Up the neutral to #8.
As most will know the prewired (240/120-30A)comes with a flex,20 leads and #10 neutral and ground.
IMO, this would be just an extension of the factory set up,But still makes me question my thoughts.
Any ideas? confirmations,or potential problems?
Tanx, Lee

First question, are you under the 2008 NEC?

08,Yes

You don't have a lot of room within the transfer switch enclosure, nor is there much space under the screws / clamps that the wires attach to.

I would suggest mounting a fairly large can, or even a small gutter, near the transfer switch. I'd then terminate the wires to a terminal stirp, and connect the "extension wires" there. I'd rather do this than use wire nuts.

Though ... all considered .... 10 circuits is a fairly large number, and with the matter of convenience added in ... perhaps we would be better served by re-doing the arrangement completely, perhaps with a sub-panel and an automatic transfer switch.

It comes down to the "cheap-good-fast" riddle. The original was cheap and fast, but not that good. There's no way around that!

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200321033_200321033

Similar to this.
All self contained. in that whip is a #10 neutral and ground.10 ckt switch legs.
The generator plugs into the front.
Red wires to breaker and black wires to load. Very slick set up. Neutral to the N buss and ground of course.
typically loads are spliced in the panel. This application I was thinking about moving this T-switch to the garage,Effectively just extending the switch legs.
Terminal strip is in order,Yes.