Power your HOUSE with a Portable Generator

Nearly every contractor owns a portable generator, but did you know you can power your house with one of these units? In this Build Show sponsored by Champion Power Equipment, Matt will show you how to set up your home to run off a portable generator.
Here's the model we are showing in the video:
OSHA Safety Sheet - Portable Generators

Huge thanks to our Show sponsors Polywall, Huber, Dorken Delta, Prosoco, Rockwool & Viewrail for helping to make these videos possible! These are all trusted companies that Matt has worked with for years and trusts their products in the homes he builds. We would highly encourage you to check out their websites for more info.

[DigitalBenny]

This works. 👍

There's no need to nitpick anything else about this setup guys. Matt (and his VP) deserve props for re-doing this video. Most people would just delete the video and never speak of it again. But they "manned-up" and fixed their mistake.

👊 Risinger

[cjimcook]

Thanks for the full disclosure at the end. It's one thing to be an electrical engineer, but the practical side is what transforms the theoretical into the practice. Put more plainly, this is what makes "old hands" in any industry so valuable. Cheers!

[FryGuyNS]

Much better. Good to see that you owned the mistake and fixed it. It's a huge problem of backup generators here not being installed correctly and safely.

[jbg]

Like the honesty that says a lot when now a days its hard to tell or even be like that

[ScottJ]

I bought a Generac 7000EXL about 20 years ago. Still running like a top BTW. Back then portable gennies were identified by their continuous output, (mine would be 7KW), rather than their surge or start up output, (Mine would be12.5KW). Gennies on the market today highlight their surge output rather than continuous output hoping the buyer might think they're getting a more powerful machine.

[tobyleach]

I was on generator for a couple of weeks after hurricane Ike. I powered my entire home off a 7000 watt generator, except central AC. I installed a 12000 BTU 120V window unit in the master bedroom. It worked great. I used the 220 v receptacle for the dryer and turned off the main breaker on the panel to prevent back feeding. The only plug I used was on the generator itself, I ran the cable through the dryer vent line and disconnected the dryer receptacle and used wire nuts to connect. The only other thing I did, was change my oil on the generator every day. Make sure to follow manufacturer's recommendations on oil changes. Our Generator ran 24 hours a day. Most anyone can make do with what they have but never play around with electricity.

[Mayamax]

I installed the same type of setup at my place. My house has a natural gas stove, furnace & dryer, so I can feed my entire electrical load with a 5500 watt unit. There are breaker interlock kits for the major manufactures that allow you to keep all the circuits in your panel.  
The propane fuel is nice so you don't have to worry about stale gasoline reeking havoc with your carburetor.
Great peace of mind to have a back-up ready for when you need it.

[davidgagnon]

Thank you for the shout out to the safety of linemen. That was always one thing we were always concerned about after a storm. Many people had generators and most of them were not wired into the house correctly. I will add here, that if someone gets in an emergency situation and they HAVE To connect the generator to their panel to power the house (or backfeed the house through a 220v receptacle, opening the MAIN BREAKER (turning if "OFF") will stop the generator power from being transferred back out onto the utility lines. Most utilities won't even care if you pull your meter out of the socket in an emergency situation, as it makes their personnel much safer. That being said, get a plan together to wire your generator as per Matt's video! And do it NOW, not when the storm is a day away, because the stores will be out of the components you need if you wait until the last minutes.

[imatter]

Just bought a champion 9500, and the peace of mind is awesome.

[kurtpalmer]

Thanks for showing the correct way to do this it shows great integrity on your part and I have immense respect for you doing things the right and safe way 🙂

[kfouts]

Matt you rock! Thanks for explaining what happened. I recommend your channel to everyone that needs a roof over their heads! (Cave dwelling buddies have no internet)

[keith]

After what we just experienced, I'm definitely having it done this summer

[graceandglamor]

Who else is here because of outages in this once-in-century Texas snowstorm?

[lowermichigan]

Bought a house with a manual transfer switch. Didn't think much of it until we needed it. It was wonderful when we had a 5 day outage.

[jiml]

I have one of those generators, they are awesome. (I have the widow maker plug, so that gave me a chuckle) Last winter during a power outage the linesmen were replacing a transformer across the street and I went over to chat with them. They had a huge grounding bar on the downstream lines that I asked them about. It was for exactly what you were referring to - to protect against someone backfeeding the lines. They said it happens from time to time and they get a nice arc whenever it does.

[emirlacoste]

I have a different brand of generator but your video explaining how to setup and transfer the electrical power from main line to generator was the most informative. Thank you much.

[NathanKraemer]

I recommend leaving a few minutes between turning on fridges to allow time for the start-up draw of the compressor kicking in.

[___Me_]

And make sure it's chained to something solid, as generators are in high demand during outages.

[gmannubs]

I use a 4450 start up 3500 running watt dual fuel to power up my OFF GRID accommodations up in Alberta. 1800 hours on it and it runs very well. Cant say enough good about it . Also a CHAMPION. 🙂

[DavidFloer]

This past winter I installed a power cord to my breaker box, just for a emergence and I hooked it up to a 30 amp breaker because the generator is a small one ( 4000 watts at 3500 watts running capacity) I can run 2 window air conditioners and the refrigerator and my TV, cable and computer, or in the winter 2 heaters at 750 watts a piece and keep my apt cool or warm. In the near future I'm going to up grade to a 9000 watt generator! I have used this generator 3 times in the past before I hooked a plug to the house and ran just fine, this is more convenient the the way I did it in the past.