Use RV generator to power my house?

[SR-71]

"... and no, as someone posted, this does not cut the wattage of the generator in half."


Yes, the generator will still be producing 8000 watts into a 120v to 240v transformer, but your output current (after the transformer) will be cut in half, hence the wattage will be cut in half. 8000 watts is 8000 watts, no matter how you slice it; 120v x ~66amp or 240v x ~33 amps.

[shootist]

You can light. Up both side of your home panel with 120. Your 220 stuff just wont work. Better to flip those breakers off but not required. Again, something electricians are very poor in knownledge on is the bonded neutral/grounds in generators. They are in yours I am sure. You do not want to become the path between the motorhome and the ground rod at your house. Electricity returns to its source. When you step into the motorhome you are the conductor for a short . people have been killed just walking across their yard because of multiple ground rods. The house ground rod must be the only one. The neutral and the ground in the generator cannot be tied together. We deal with this all the time in solar , and off grid solar/generator systems.

[Farmboy666]

Originally Posted by HECthe2

The 1st desirable items to run are our home heat and two water heaters, both of which are gas, so only the controls and fan would consume electricity. The #2 desired items are the refrigerator, a freezer, and the more lightweight electrics (lighting + phones, tablets, laptops) are the main desired items. I would expect that the oven and rangetop might be too much, but It would be nice to use the microwave and maybe even the dish+clothes washers (the dryer is gas), but I could turn them off at the breaker box if they'd be a problem.

You might consider giving up things like the dishwasher, dryer, 1 water heater. It's kind of a just get by situation not a live normally situation.

[MapleKing]

Originally Posted by TonyMac

Your 8000 watt generator provides 66 amps of 120 volt power, max. So, no it will not power your house, ever, the math doesn't work. It will power three 20 amp circuits therein, so you get to chose which ones. I run two 100' extension cords from my rig to my house. Each I limit to provided 15 amps to run a heater and fan and maybe phone chargers and the like

For 20 years I used a Honda 5500 watt generator to power my house when the power has been off. We've used it for extended periods (over 10 days) and not had any problems. We could not use the stove and the microwave at the same time but had no problems powering everything else.

Now, the generator provided 220v and the OP's generator only supplies 120v but I would think that 8000 watts would be enough if I was able to run a house on 5500 watts.

To the OP, I would consider running extension cords connected to different circuits in your rig to power appliances directly instead of jumping through hoops to use your existing wiring. You should be able to power any 120v appliances that way.

[keithg]

Be very carefull following some suggestions posted on how to provide 240 V power from 120 generator.
You cannot just power your house by powering both L1 & L2 main in you panel even with a transfer switch.
Power coming in to panel from power company has each leg out of phase with each other. From a MH generator the legs would be in phase any house circuits that have a common neutral would double the current in the neutral.

Do not do!!!!!

[Mekanic]

A time or two I have run my whole house on my 5500 watt genset.
I throw the main breaker so there is no back feed out of the house.
Then I plug in a cord I made to plug into the welding machine outlet.
While it does feed 240 to the house there is nothing that runs on that during the
Winter.

[tebeall]

I have two comments and a question. 1st. comment is in relation to getting the power into the home. I installed a 220v outlet in the wall next to the power panel, and wired to a 60 amp breaker. I had an electrician install a legal lock out on the panel. That was done by placing the breaker at the top of the panel with allowed a special lockout to be installed that wouldn't allow that breaker to be used if the main was on. Just a mechanical device, but legal in Oregon.


2nd. comment is that I also changed out every light in the house to LED's long before this. These things just sip electricity, as do modern TV's, PC's, etc. Good way to get most of your lighting and not stress the genny.


My last is a question. Just HOW does one hook up a connection to the genny to run a cord to the house? I have an Onan 10K diesel genny in my Phaeton. At the genny? At the transfer switch?

[Solo_RV_Guy]

Originally Posted by KanzKran

There are supposedly small areas of Philadelphia and Hartford CT with buildings still wired for and running on 2-phase power, probably with Scott-T transformers to create 90 deg. 2-phase from 120 deg. 3-phase. The NEC still has tables for 2-phase induction motor circuit and disconnect sizing to 200 hp. But I haven't seen those systems for myself. I have, however, seen DC into buildings from Con Ed in NYC, many moons ago, and some massive centrifugal ventilation blowers running on that DC, though most elevators I've seen were using motor-generators with AC induction motors driving DC generators to create the DC. Some odd antique stuff.

Single-phase is single-phase because no matter how you break it up with transformer taps, like the center tap in the transformer on the pole that the neutral is connected to, all the sine wave peaks occur at the same time regardless of relative polarity. When L1 is at +120V, L2 is at -120V, referenced to ground, flipping polarity in 1/120 second, and they're all at zero volts at the same time in between. (OK, 170V peaks for the purists. )

You've got a whole semesters worth of E.E. stuff in one post. Very cool. Phase angles, phase rotation, center tapped transformers... all you need is to add in Power Factor and load balancing and you've got a curriculum!


2 phase still exists in a couple of places; direct current in NYC was taken out of service a couple of years ago (after over 120 years of use, much of it on the original equipment).

[Solo_RV_Guy]

Originally Posted by 36PFT

Not all that hard if you understand basic electricity. Install a female 50 amp RV receptacle in the RV looped from your transfer switch. Put another female 50 amp RV receptacle in you house / garage. Wire the receptacle to your house panel thru a 50 amp 2 pole breaker. Make your own cord to go between th RV and your house / garage receptacle, should be 6 gauge or larger, 4 conductor. Yes this means you will make an extension cord with two male ends. Before you plug in turn off the main breaker in the house panel. This will eliminate any power going out of your house into the grid. When you see lights on in the neighborhood, turn off all the loads, lights, furnace, water pump, ( if you don't have city water), etc., shut down generator, unplug the extension cord, turn on house main breaker. Biggest cost is the wire. Stan

Please, please, please DO NOT DO THIS. Period. It's a Code violation and is potentially VERY dangerous.


Should you have a fire I can almost guarantee the insurance company will fight the claim.

[Solo_RV_Guy]

Originally Posted by frizfreleng

Welcome to rural America. This was recommended by the electrical co-op when I inquired about installing a manual transfer switch. Albeit he said "I never told you this". Build a double male extension cable. Throw the main breaker to the grid. Throw all the breakers in your box. Back feed your generator into your 30 amp dryer outlet. Fire off the generator. Throw the dryer breaker on. Selectively chose which breakers you want on to power whatever. Doesn't run the whole house by any means but does give you almost 30 amps of power in an emergency. This worked very well during hurricane Irma in 2017. Power was off for 5 days.

Again, illegal, dangerous and almost certain to negate your insurance policy. That's the reason your utility worker buddy said "you didn't hear this from me." He'd be fired and open himself up to a lawsuit when something bad happens. Note I didn't say "if."

[Warlock]

Originally Posted by HECthe2

A snow storm knocked out our house electricity 1.5 days ago. We're staying in the DSDP with full tanks of diesel and propane, meaning that we're OK for several days (except for no water due to winterizing). This situation makes me wonder if somehow the RV generator could be used to supply electricity to our house. I have a roll-about gas generator and know how to pull the meter and connect it to the house, so there's no problem on that side of connecting, but I haven't done it because staying in the RV prevents the need. Is there a means, without un-common effort or expense, to get full generator power from the RV generator to run the house? Without listing them all, there would be multiple benefits from this. Can any RV-generator wizards among you tell me if this might be do-able without being too-big or too-expensive of a project?

Last year hurricane Erma took out my power for 8 days. I have a Oman 7500 I wired it into the house after I pulled the main breakers and it ran 3 freezers two computers, 55 in tv and Dish sat unit, lights fans But no AC water heater or dryer, but at the same time it ran one of the two roof airs in the RV where we lived for the 8 days.

It ran none stop for the whole time.

So, have no fear it will work just fine.

[artfd]

Originally Posted by shootist

. people have been killed just walking across their yard because of multiple ground rods. The house ground rod must be the only one.

Please elaborate on this statement. My best reading of my city's electric code is that each house must have at least 2 ground rods. The service electrical panel must connect to one ground, which must then be connected to the second ground rod. Yet in my city the vast majority of home electric systems have no ground rod whatsoever and are simply grounded to the home's water supply pipe. Apparently these are old systems "grandfathered-in" as the term goes.

[artfd]

Originally Posted by vettenuts

I cut the wire to the furnace and put a NEMA plug in line so I could simply plug it into an extension cord to the generator when we lost power in the dead of winter.

I have a gas forced air furnace which needs electric power only for the fan and electrical controls of the furnaces mechanisms.
I had thought of doing the same thing you did. However, I read the electric code for my area and discovered that putting a plug in line to the furnace is against the code. The code specifies the furnace wiring must be continuous from the furnace to the circuit breakers. This makes no sense but that was in my local code

[artfd]

I once thought of having a transfer switch installed at my house to allow an external generator to power a few circuits. When I got the bids for over $2000 including permits, parts and work I gave up that idea. This was exclusive of a generator. I figured it would be cheaper for me to shut down the house & evacuate myself 400 miles or so away to wait out the power failure at a hotel.