Connecting MEP to house

[EnteJager]

I am okay with the house part, have a secondary electric panel with a manual
switch to isolate from power grid. My question is what kind of power cable should I be looking at. The genny will be approx 100 ft from the house.

I saw this on ebay, any thoughts?
2/0 GENERATOR CABLE, UL LISTED, W/ CAM LOKS, 100FT, NEW - eBay (item 300330612233 end time Aug-14-09 13:13:04 PDT)

Thanks,
Dave

 

[doghead]

Which generator are you going to use?

 

[EnteJager]

Guess that would help.

MEP-003A

 

[drgreg]

That is $340/ cable. You would need 2 phase conductors, 1 neutral conductor & 1 ground conductor. That is $1360 in cables, probably way overkill for a residential application.

 

[rat4spd]

That is $1360 in cables, probably way overkill for a residential application.

That's overkill for any application and a waste of copper for a machine that runs somewhere around 60A pegged out.

 

[Speddmon]

If you can get it for a good price then it will work, but it's way overkill.

Only 100 feet you don't really need to worry about voltage drop because you are not far enough away for too much drop. The MEP-003a is rated at 52 amps if you are using the 120/240 configuration like you should be for a house.

The first thing you need to figure out is if it's going to be buried or above ground? Lying on the ground or strung overhead? For above ground uses, strung overhead you can get some aluminum service entrance cable suitable for 60 amps, don't remember right off the top of my head, but I'm going to say it would probably be 4 awg possibly 6 awg.

If it were lying on the ground and you were going to string it out only when needed, I would buy some 6/4 type "SO" cord (6/4 means #6awg 4 conductor). It's rubber and waterproof, tough stuff and very durable.

Underground you'll want 60 amp "UF" cable. The "UF" stands for underground feeder cable. It's rated for direct burial and isn't terribly expensive.

No matter what route you're going to use, you can probably get away with #6 awg since it's typically rated for 60 amps.

Also, no matter what you use, In your situation, you really should use 4 conductors because you said you had a secondary panel...meaning your ground and neutral wire should be isolated. So you should run 2 hot wires from the genny, one neutral from the genny and a separate ground that also grounds the genny.

If you are not 100% comfortable doing the wiring on your own or are not sure about what kind of wire or size to use. Or how to make the hook up's. Do yourself a favor and hire an electrician to do it for you. It'll get done right and your unburned house will thank you for it. Just my

 

[Speddmon]

That wire on E-pay is actually 2/0 welding cable. The ultra flex design and 2/0 rating is standard for welding applications.

 

[drgreg]

That wire on E-pay is actually 2/0 welding cable. The ultra flex design and 2/0 rating is standard for welding applications.

It is also standard for generators, those cables in free air would have an ampacity of about 400 amps.

 

[m16ty]

If you know somebody that works for your local power company, check with them. Power companies throw away massive amounts of wire. I've got a freind that works for the local power company and can get me just about any wire I want for scrap price.

 

[KsM715]

They dont throw it away. I bet he's pulling it out of a scrap box that gets sold to a recycler every so often.

 

[m16ty]

They dont throw it away. I bet he's pulling it out of a scrap box that gets sold to a recycler every so often.

I should have said "sold for scrap". Yes, he's pulling in out of the scrap hopper. He's not stealing it. They let him have it for scrap price.

He said they had 10 full big spools with wire on them as big as your arm awhile back. The spools had been sitting outside for a long time and the wood had rotted. They cut the wire up and threw in in the scrap hopper rather than try and get it off the rotted spools and onto a new spool. And we all wonder why electricity cost so much.

 

[OPCOM]

#4 per conductor would be plenty good for that.

The machine is configurable for single phase 120-0-120V?

I ask because some generators can do 240V but it is not split into a balanced 120V per leg output by configuration. For those, one must go inside and play with the wires.

 

[DOCUSN1]

My two cents but I would just use 100 amp service cable. I havent done it yet but im going to mount a 100 amp weather resistant breaker box just above the lug conection box , and run the 100 amp service cable up to the breaker box. Set the settings to 220/240 single phase max amp and run from the selected breakers from there. I myself have no need for the three phase service and it dosent make much sense to run on straight 110 single phase. This way here you have the power abilty of both 110/220 and you can run whateveryou want in your house. I havent figured out to my tastes yet on what method im going to quite use once I get to the house but make it as safe and simple as possible. These things will put out some major juice and amp. tread lightly. Another thing to thinkabout also I have a dedicated ac battery charger to put with the genset if the units dc charge circuit goes wacky if you lose that you will kill the battery fast running the fuel pumps but if you can keep the battery up you will be allright, trust me I am currently reparing one right now and the parts are very hard to find and if your thinking about cannabilizing the charging circut from a 400 hrz unit you will need all the parts it is a different unit all togather why they did it this way I dont know but they did. I hope this helps you out. Mark

 

[EnteJager]

"If you are not 100% comfortable doing the wiring on your own or are not sure about what kind of wire or size to use. Or how to make the hook up's. Do yourself a favor and hire an electrician to do it for you. It'll get done right and your unburned house will thank you for it"

Thanks Speed, I plan on using an electrician, all I want to do besides the regular maintenance on the engine is run out the cable and plug it into the house. I'll leave the spark chasing to the pro's.

 

[Speddmon]

Good to hear. If you're going to be stringing out the cable each use, then I would definitely go with the 6/4 "SO" cord, it's not the cheapest stuff in the world, but you want something that will withstand the harsh environment of a storm, which includes rain, possibly snow, sleet, maybe a tree branch falling on it. This is the stuff you want. It's super tuff. There is another type out there called "Super Trex" "SO" cord. I don't remember if super trex is the brand name or just what the company calls it, but it's about the toughest cable I've ever seen. We use it in the steel mill all the time, believe me, if it can handle that invironment for years on end, it will handle ANYTHING you could possibly throw at it. But it is even more expensive than regular "SO" cord.

 

[atankersdad]

Could some members post pics of their house connections and transfer switch set ups. I have to hook one up and am looking at the various approaches taken. I want to pour a slab and put my 003 or a pair of 003's in a small building. Want to insulate and add noise reduction material but also have adequate ventilation and accessability to all 4 sides of the unit (s). Thinking on putting hinged walls to allow walls to flip up for service. I just spent 2 days without power and had to use a gas gen unit so this has moved this project to the front. I will most likely run an above ground cable with industrial style plug-in connections. Northern tools has a 150 amp transfer switch that I may use. Feel free to offer input. I am gonna put this slab > 50-70 feet from the house for noise abatement. Has anyone used mufflers on an 003? Were there any performance issues? Fire away i am open for SS help on this and I promise to post pics.. Thanks. ATD

 

[lavarok]

My outside panel has service breakers, so I used an interlock which will allow either my main breaker or my 50amp genset breaker to be on. Per code here, isolation of the two power sources is required.

I have a service plug by the front of my house, so I just need to back my genset up the driveway and connect. I opted to stay trailer mounted.

 

[maddog]

Lavarok, that lockout device, it requires you break the connection to city power (top breaker) before you can close the genset breaker?

So the panel if fed through the lower breaker marked "genset"?

 

[steelandcanvas]

If you can get it for a good price then it will work, but it's way overkill.

Only 100 feet you don't really need to worry about voltage drop because you are not far enough away for too much drop. The MEP-003a is rated at 52 amps if you are using the 120/240 configuration like you should be for a house.

The first thing you need to figure out is if it's going to be buried or above ground? Lying on the ground or strung overhead? For above ground uses, strung overhead you can get some aluminum service entrance cable suitable for 60 amps, don't remember right off the top of my head, but I'm going to say it would probably be 4 awg possibly 6 awg.

If it were lying on the ground and you were going to string it out only when needed, I would buy some 6/4 type "SO" cord (6/4 means #6awg 4 conductor). It's rubber and waterproof, tough stuff and very durable.

Underground you'll want 60 amp "UF" cable. The "UF" stands for underground feeder cable. It's rated for direct burial and isn't terribly expensive.

No matter what route you're going to use, you can probably get away with #6 awg since it's typically rated for 60 amps.

Also, no matter what you use, In your situation, you really should use 4 conductors because you said you had a secondary panel...meaning your ground and neutral wire should be isolated. So you should run 2 hot wires from the genny, one neutral from the genny and a separate ground that also grounds the genny.

If you are not 100% comfortable doing the wiring on your own or are not sure about what kind of wire or size to use. Or how to make the hook up's. Do yourself a favor and hire an electrician to do it for you. It'll get done right and your unburned house will thank you for it. Just my

Well put, good Electrician answer. I was going to answer this, but I couldn't have put it any better.

 

[steelandcanvas]

My outside panel has service breakers, so I used an interlock which will allow either my main breaker or my 50amp genset breaker to be on. Per code here, isolation of the two power sources is required.

I have a service plug by the front of my house, so I just need to back my genset up the driveway and connect. I opted to stay trailer mounted.

Good job, nice clean install, and correct also. I would like to do mine this way.