I suspect you won't hear back from the city inspector because they don't want to be responsible for engineering. They may also require you be a licensed electrician for that work

City should be able to tell you if its to code. Just make sure they now your the homeowner. Depending on your City they can be very friendly and helpful. As long as your working on your own house, shouldn't need to be a licensed contractor again depending on your city, the inspector should be checking to make sure it meets code. Unfortunately some cities think they need to protect you from yourself, and force you to big business, of course at that point, just do the work and don't pull a permit. Of course if your city has a required city inspection when you sell, you might / might not get caught. Lucky for me we have a friendly city inspection crew, and no selling inspection.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

My town is very friendly with my being allowed to do my own work. I built this house and did my own wiring, all with a legal permit. I even asked the inspector a few questions about it before and he gave me good answers. When he did the inspections, I asked him to be extra careful because this was my first electrical job.

I understand this up and it's easier and neater than a transfer switch. It almost looks too good to be real. I'm just wondering if anyone else has used it.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

First off: do you have a Sq. D QO breaker panel? If not, this one won't work for you.

Good news: every manufacturer has whole panel transfer kits now, provided it's a fairly recent panel.

So second question: if not QO, what type of panel is it? When was it installed?

Once you know those things, than finding a kit is relatively easy. Worse that happens, go to a local supply house and those boys can guide you to what you need.

However, after that you will still need to wire in a receptacle and breaker for the generator. The breaker will become the Main when on gennie power; the receptacle is there to provide a proper manner to plug the generator in: DO NOT back-feed a range or dryer receptacle! Not only is that against code, it's just plain hack work.

Hopefully this points you in the right direction. It isn't hard to do it yourself (I know of no code that doesn't allow for a home owner to do his own electrical work, just the local utility will generally require a licensed electrician sign off in order to connect). However, you do need to work around live circuits with the dead front/panel cover removed, or in the dark with your panel board shut off. You do have a generator though, so that wouldn't be an issue...

Any questions, lemme know and I'll do my best to answer 'em.
- Jeff

*Note: NH Master Electrician since 2003

jk, thanks for your informed reply. Yes I do have a Sq D 200 amp main panel. Not so sure of the model number but it looks just like the ones in the pic from Sq D. That's the Sq D interlock. I'm away from that house right now but I'm pretty sure. I won't be getting anything until I'm sure.

I'm in Ulster Co , NY and I haven't heard back from the electrical inspector. In your experience, have you found any towns or power companies that just don't allow using an interlock switch. It just looks too easy!

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Nope. It's in the NEC and the unit is UL listed: it's perfectly fine. No worries there.

Sq. D actually makes two types of panels and breakers, QO and Homeline. So double check on that, but they absolutely make one for each.

The actual installation of the interlock is remarkably simple. What can be difficult is making space in the panel (you typically need to use the first 2 spaces for the gennie breaker), but even that is usually pretty simple.

- Jeff

Yes, I have a huge 200 amp panel with at least 4 empty slots at the bottom. The plan now is to get a Generac 8000 watt generator (pretty sure it comes with a 10' cable), 30 amp inlet box and the Sq D interlock, 30 amp breaker and about 10 ft of 10-3 wire. I want to put the inlet box just inside my garage door. I'll be able to run lights in 1 or 2 rooms at a time and my pellet stove, rifrig, and well pump. I'll just have to shut off the pump and frig to make hot water.

Next time a tree goes down taking all the wires with it, I'll be sitting pretty and cooking weinies on the grill!

Thanks again for your help

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

Ghetto version: shut off your main breaker and plug the generator's 220 output into one of your house's 220 outlets (clothes dryer, etc).

Yeah! and then OP can roast his weenies in the ensuing fire as his house burns down.

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Steve

Also a good way to get yourself arrested when there are wires down.

Only if you forget to shut off your main breaker. And yes, it's bad and stupid idea. Hence the word "ghetto" as in half-assed (not racial).

Ya know, if your panel is on an exterior wall in a utility room and you put the inlet box outside on that wall, you could do the interlock in probably only about 2 or 3 times the time it would take to cut up and splice the two cables to make a ''suicide cable''.

And it's much faster than rebuilding the house after you burn it down!

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law