Generator Transfer Switch - Critical Circuits

[uconn9]

I'm getting ready to install a 7.5kW transfer switch in the house for an emergency generator.

The three mission-critical circuits that will definitely transferred are:
1) Well Pump
2) Furnace
3) Refrigerator

Any recommendations on additional circuits I should add? I'll have 6 additional circuits.

Thanks

 

[Alchymist]

At least 1 kitchen outlet, one lighting circuit.

 

[Rye425]

Not sure on your cooking scenario but maybe stove top if electric or outlets so you could use a griddle/electric frying pan.

I would focus on lights: bedroom, family room

 

[pattenp]

Bathroom light so you can hit the john.

 

[Delta74]

as said above, bathroom light, fridge, cooking plug for hot plate or microwave.

a few to consider, outside light, cause you know the thieves will be out, I mean everyone is in a hotel across town with power, if its going to be a battery start unit, a plug for the charger of the battery so it can restart, how about a Light where the Generator is so you can see to check on it, top off the fuel without holding the flashlight in your mouth.

where are the cars? how about 1 garage door opener so you can get in or out of the garage to go get more fuel, food or whatever.

really you could add the garage with the light and charger for the generator, anyway a few things to consider if you rarely go more then a few hours without power some of these wont apply, here we have gone 5 days without ( forest fire took out lines )

Oh most definatly, a plug for a radio or small TV so you know whats happening out there, and keep a old fashion phone that actually plugs in, cause the cordless wont work with no power.

 

[uconn9]

Thanks guys. Great advice, especially the garage door opener. I hadn't even considered that one.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Thanks guys. Great advice, especially the garage door opener. I hadn't even considered that one.

I wouldnt waste my time with that...thats what the little red release handle is for..

PattenP is right..light in the ol John so you can read (see the pictures) in your favorite magazine..

 

[rlitman]

> bathroom light

Yes. Absolutely yes.
I actually went one beyond this. I installed a 5KW UPS in my house which has an output to a breaker panel. This powers my televisions, cable boxes, and cordless phones, and also the night-light in my bathroom fan. I put an LED bulb in there, and it stays on 24x7. Just enough light to do whatever you need, and it's come in real handy for those midnight trips leading little children to the potty.

> outside light, cause you know the thieves will be out, I mean everyone is in
> a hotel across town with power, if its going to be a battery start unit, a
> plug for the charger of the battery so it can restart, how about a Light
> where the Generator is so you can see to check on it, top off the fuel
> without holding the flashlight in your mouth.

No, and kinda.
Too many lights on makes everyone know just who owns that generator that is making all that noise. You do have a cable to lock up your generator, right? They're worth much more on CraigsList when the power is out, if you get my drift.
I have a shop light by the generator, but I leave it off when I'm not around.
Certainly having an outlet near the generator is a must, but most already come with that.

> where are the cars? how about 1 garage door opener so you can get in or
> out of the garage to go get more fuel, food or whatever.

Good point, but for me, I don't park in my detached garage. When the power is out, I just use the side door.

> Oh most definatly, a plug for a radio or small TV so you know whats
> happening out there, and keep a old fashion phone that actually plugs in,
> cause the cordless wont work with no power.[/QUOTE]

My priorities for generator power
Heat and hot water
Refrigerator and chest freezer
Television, cable, phone and internet for the wife's sanity
Outlets to power my cordless tool chargers (so I can recharge their flashlights)
everything else (I have a gas range, and matches handy, so that's not a big deal for me).
Lighting isn't a large concern. I've got several oil lamps from before I owned a generator (my block's power has been very bad for a long time), and the flicker of the oil lamps doesn't alert anyone that you have power.

BTW, there is a Panasonic cordless multi-phone setup with a nifty battery backup solution. When the power is out, you leave one phone in the central base, and that phone's battery powers the base. Also, these newer DECT phones draw very little power, and the Panasonic ones use a pair of AAA rechargeable batteries, BUT you can run them on regular AAA batteries, so long as you do not put them on a charging base. You should actually get a few days on a pair of batteries.

 

[Alchymist]

Thanks guys. Great advice, especially the garage door opener. I hadn't even considered that one.

Emergency power for a garage door opener? Why not just pull the trip cord and open it manually????

 

[2manytoyz]

Emergency power for a garage door opener? Why not just pull the trip cord and open it manually????

That's fine if you're inside the house. At our house, the garage is the primary entrance we use.

Power goes off enough in FL that I bought an opener with a battery backup. Wife parks her vehicle in the garage. When the power is out here, it's often raining sideways.

It's not that the door can't manually be operated, but rather I no longer need to. If you have alternative power available, why NOT use it for the garage door?

My suggestion for determining critical circuits is to throw your main breakers at night. Turn them on one at a time, take a walk through your house and see what that circuit actually powers. You might be surprised what circuit is tied to what. Things like hallway lights might be tied to the bathroom, etc.

I rewired portions of my last house so it could run on a 900AH battery bank and inverter. During the day, solar panels recharged the batteries. Haven't set it all up at the new house yet. Still in work.

 

[east_tn_emc]

I have an APC UPS powering my cordless telephone system. It will keep the phone working for about 12-24 hours when the power is off.

In this day of electronic gadgets, most people exclusively have cordless phones and speakerphones in their house, and do not have an "old fashion" telephone...and when the power goes out, they dont have a phone.

I also have several good-sized (1500+watt) UPSs with extended runtime batteries on all my televisions and electronics. Neighbors tease me when the power goes out at night, and ask me why they still see the glow of my television in the window.
I have about 4-hours worth of runtime on my television, sat receiver and DVD player (as well as all my security cameras!!!)....reminds me I need to hook my popcorn popper up too!

> bathroom light



BTW, there is a Panasonic cordless multi-phone setup with a nifty battery backup solution. When the power is out, you leave one phone in the central base, and that phone's battery powers the base. Also, these newer DECT phones draw very little power, and the Panasonic ones use a pair of AAA rechargeable batteries, BUT you can run them on regular AAA batteries, so long as you do not put them on a charging base. You should actually get a few days on a pair of batteries.

 

[rlitman]

In this day of electronic gadgets, most people exclusively have cordless phones and speakerphones in their house, and do not have an "old fashion" telephone...and when the power goes out, they dont have a phone.....reminds me I need to hook my popcorn popper up too!

Don't forget to power the cable modem, if that's where your phone comes from (like mine). And the network switch and router, if you want your computer to work.
And if you have FIOS, their battery pack only powers the phone for about 8 hours.
If I need to provide power for all that stuff just to make an "old fashioned" telephone work, why bother with a corded phone any more for power outages?

I generally pop my popcorn on the gas stovetop, so no worries about draining batteries over that.

 

[tdkkart]

Well pump
Furnace
Fridge
Microwave
Cable/DSL Modem and router
Dish TV receiver
Basement freezer
Family room lights/outlets

 

[uconn9]

Thanks again guys.

As far as the garage door opener, I obviously could use the manual release. However, I'm way ahead of you guys. Once I mentioned this to my wife, she insists the opener should be on the generator. No problem honey.

Of course, that also happens to be the same circuit as the beer fridge in the garage.....

 

[Dusty Floor]

After 15 days total in two separate outages last year, the two circuits we were really glad we had were the stairway lights, which provide enough light to move around most of the house, and a bunch of convenience outlets in the kitchen, which were always stuffed with chargers, small tv, and radio. This of course after well, refrigerator, freezer, and furnace.
One surprise was the battery in our alarm panel -- never had an outage long enough for it to be an issue before. I ended up with an extension cord to the outlet in the garage for the freezer. This outlet also provided a place for a light in the garage, helpful going in and out to service the generator (our garage has virtually no natural light).
The biggest "miss" in our setup is the UPS where the computer equipment is (including DSL modem and WiFi gear). It wasn't practical to get on the gen panel, because it's on a subpanel at the wrong end of the house. Ended up with an extension cord up the stairs to keep it charged up.

We generally ran the generator only enough to keep the fridge below 39 and a bit more in the evening for TV.
We're getting ready for another round of the same with Sandy predicted to hit us pretty hard.

 

[matt151617]

Microwave is good to have, especially with those steamer bags, you can cook anything. Although I wouldn't waste a circuit on it, use an extension cord.

If your hot water is made by the furnace, gas, or on-demand (non-electric), I'd power that. Being able to take showers would make the outage much more comfortable. Lighting circuit is also essential. You may want a bedroom circuit to run an alarm clock/radio and charge cell phones. Another essential circuit for me was the cable modem/router. It'll allow for wifi to keep occupied and updated, and I also depend on it with my signal booster for the cell phone.

 

[Burtonrider10022]

Microwave is good to have, especially with those steamer bags, you can cook anything. Although I wouldn't waste a circuit on it, use an extension cord.

If your hot water is made by the furnace, gas, or on-demand (non-electric), I'd power that. Being able to take showers would make the outage much more comfortable. Lighting circuit is also essential. You may want a bedroom circuit to run an alarm clock/radio and charge cell phones. Another essential circuit for me was the cable modem/router. It'll allow for wifi to keep occupied and updated, and I also depend on it with my signal booster for the cell phone.

Damn, I was just about to mention the hot water heater lol. Obviously, gas only, because an electric one will draw a ridiculous amount that could be better used elsewhere. 7.5kW transfer switch could be easily overloaded. Be very careful about multiple high start-up appliances starting at once. I.e. you flip the breaker for the well pump, fridge, and beer fridge simultaneously and you will be drawing more than 7.5kW for a few seconds, which is all it takes to fry things/cause a fire.


Be safe.

 

[tdkkart]

The biggest "miss" in our setup is the UPS where the computer equipment is (including DSL modem and WiFi gear). It wasn't practical to get on the gen panel, because it's on a subpanel at the wrong end of the house. Ended up with an extension cord up the stairs to keep it charged up.

We end up with an extension cord to run the Dish TV receiver and DSL modem/router that are upstairs in our house. These items never existed in the house when the previous owners did the subpanel/transfer switch setup back in the Y-2-K debacle.
Other than this and no hot water we can function quite well on generator power.

 

[chrgdrt]

Sump pump if you have one

 

[uconn9]

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

I was able to hook up the majority of the circuits recommended, with the exception of the cable modem/wifi. In my experience, we usually lose cable before we lose power, and cable is the last utility to be restored. On the odd chance that we actually do have cable and no power, I can temporarily relocate the setup.

Best,