Generator backfeeding question

[mendozer]

No offense taken, thank you for clarifying that. I know what circuits things are on. I'll just have to do the calculations.

I like your option of the kill-a-watt that measures each device peak and logs it.

 

[mendozer]

While searching for kill-a-watt and seeing a few reviews I came something called Iotawatt
Wifi based monitor with clamp on meters for your main supply lines plus as many circuit clamps as you want. This is the high tech version of what I was trying to wire up. Looks cool. Kind of like Sense which seems to be a popular home monitor for this stuff. I can set this up and let it run for a while charting the circuits over time then I'll REALLY know which ones will push me over 3000W per phase.

 

[checkthisout]

While searching for kill-a-watt and seeing a few reviews I came something called Iotawatt
Wifi based monitor with clamp on meters for your main supply lines plus as many circuit clamps as you want. This is the high tech version of what I was trying to wire up. Looks cool. Kind of like Sense which seems to be a popular home monitor for this stuff. I can set this up and let it run for a while charting the circuits over time then I'll REALLY know which ones will push me over 3000W per phase.

Yes. I think that's a much better, in fact an excellent option over those other inductive or shunt displays Way less work and turn key.

 

[TractorJeff]

I didn't study the 2 photo's attached real well but in the 2nd meter (Red Wire going thru the CT). The Red wire needs to be used to allow the Meter 2 to measure the Voltage. As far as powering the device, it should be powered on Meter 1 by Black and White, Meter 2 by Red and White wires. Make Sense?

 

[mendozer]

Actually the Emporia Vue looks like an even better bet for my needs. Has 16 circuits to monitor with a better looking app and it's $150. I'm sold.

 

[ddurrett896]

I'd just backfeed all 15/20 amp breakers, then turn on the 30 amp breakers are you need them.

 

[mendozer]

Got it done today. It took a lot of zip ties. Taking the old 6 circuit transfer switch out revealed some weird stuff.
Transfer "a" and "b" were the X and Y from a 4 conductor wire, going to circuits 13 and 15. Seemed odd to me to have one romex bundle feeding two circuits. It is a house from the 80s and it's white romex, so back then from what I've been told outlets and lights were on same circuits. Maybe they ran red to one room and black to another to save on wire costs and shared ground/neutral?
Transfer "c" was one hot wire from another 4 conductor bundle also split between breakers. it fed breaker 17.
Transfer "D" went nowhere, literally. the red wire from the switch went into breaker 19 but the black was tied off to a random wire nut. So when I removed it, 19 was left empty.
Transfer E and F both were one wire from two separate 4 conductors again. So basically these were all on old lines and i thought it weird they were sharing.

Anyways, put everything back to the breakers (except 19) and tested things. Once that was cleared, I shut power off again, tidied unnecessarily long wires, tied bundles, installed my interlock switch. I had to grind off a bit to prevent the breakers on the other side from hitting it which prevented them from fully engaging. Then I installed the Emporia Vue smart home monitor. The clamp ons were easy, but I could not for the life of me cram everything in the panel like the instructions suggest so I knocked out a few holes and ran the wires outside to the module. It's a temporary fix until I can figure out what to do, but now I can watch trends and see circuit power then decide how I want to do things with a generator.

 

[checkthisout]

Got it done today. It took a lot of zip ties. Taking the old 6 circuit transfer switch out revealed some weird stuff.
Transfer "a" and "b" were the X and Y from a 4 conductor wire, going to circuits 13 and 15. Seemed odd to me to have one romex bundle feeding two circuits. It is a house from the 80s and it's white romex, so back then from what I've been told outlets and lights were on same circuits. Maybe they ran red to one room and black to another to save on wire costs and shared ground/neutral?
Transfer "c" was one hot wire from another 4 conductor bundle also split between breakers. it fed breaker 17.
Transfer "D" went nowhere, literally. the red wire from the switch went into breaker 19 but the black was tied off to a random wire nut. So when I removed it, 19 was left empty.
Transfer E and F both were one wire from two separate 4 conductors again. So basically these were all on old lines and i thought it weird they were sharing.

Anyways, put everything back to the breakers (except 19) and tested things. Once that was cleared, I shut power off again, tidied unnecessarily long wires, tied bundles, installed my interlock switch. I had to grind off a bit to prevent the breakers on the other side from hitting it which prevented them from fully engaging. Then I installed the Emporia Vue smart home monitor. The clamp ons were easy, but I could not for the life of me cram everything in the panel like the instructions suggest so I knocked out a few holes and ran the wires outside to the module. It's a temporary fix until I can figure out what to do, but now I can watch trends and see circuit power then decide how I want to do things with a generator.

Is there not enough room in the top of the panel there?

 

[mendozer]

I'm sure there could be but I didn't like the idea of cramming a bunch of wires near the main lines. You don't think that's a hazard somehow?

 

[checkthisout]

I'm sure there could be but I didn't like the idea of cramming a bunch of wires near the main lines. You don't think that's a hazard somehow?

It's fine. The whole thing is an electrical cabinet for making splices etc. No area in the box is "off limits" per se.

It's worse to have knockouts removed that don't have wires and rated clamps/grommets/wires in them.