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Back Up Generator Power
This may be a dumb question, but I have been looking for a backup generator for the house during our monsoon period. Looks like i need a diesel generator, a fuel tank, an inverter and maybe some batteries….to provide a electrical back up for the house. All of those exist on my bus. At first I thought about just salvaging a 20kw with some life out of a salvage coach. Then I kind of thought: “why not just use my coach”.
Someone mentioned in a prior post that some of the coaches had a “buddy plug”. Mine’s a 2001 Marathon, can’t find a buddy plug. The Xantrax Inverter manual mentions the ability to use the inverters to “sell” electricity back to the utility. So there’s got to be some ability to pipe out electricity from the system.
So: what’s to keep us from pulling the ole Marathon around to an installed 50 amp power plug on the house and running the back-up power for the house off the bus generator system? Have 20kw, fuel, inverters, etc……
Anyone have any experience or ideas about this concept?
Thanks, Charlie…
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8 Replies
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Charlie,
This is very doable. It can be done as simply as installing a receptacle off the generator and having a cord from the house. I won’t go into the transfer switch requirements in the house, but it would be no different than using any other generator. I was going to do the same when I put in my power pedestal but just didn’t. When I’m ready my conduit has plenty of room.
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My brother has done this to provide back up power to his home in Florida. It CAN be done easily, or it can be done correctly. For your safety and the safety of those on the grid with you, the right thing to do is to have a transfer switch properly installed on your house. You never want to backfeed AC current into the assumed-dead grid your house is connected to.
I’d have this setup in a minute if I had a bus that lived on my property.
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Charlie,
If you had a Liberty, you would already have the buddy plug!:) I couldn’t resist…
I have a 10KW gen at home that I hook to the house via a manual auxillary lever that was installed by the power company when I built the house. It’s the same setup as the bus, so I can always use the bus gen if power is going to be out for a long time.
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And, a Vantare has a buddy plug as well!
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I have a house with 2 service panels and a bus sitting in the garage with 20KW worth of generator power.
I also have a Liberty with a buddy plug (couldn’t resist either). I created a sealed exhaust from the generator exhaust to an outside vent, and using a modified power outlet box to split the service from the buddy plug so I could power the garage and the house I am all set in the event of a power outage.
Because the bus is garaged 15 paces from the house and only a few more feet from each electrical panel other than plugging the coach into the house and garage panels and connecting the exhaust pipe extension I don’t have much to do to restore power. As long as we have the power source sitting in our garage we might as well use it. So far we haven’t had to use that as a power source.
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Just happened to read this thread. I know I am late with this. But. John Browder is correct: back feeding into a grid can be a criminal issue. Electrical power company linemen often get “bit”, some seriously, because someone monkeyed with a homegrown jury-rigged standby system, just after they checked a supposedly down and dead line. And when a backfeed occurs, it is backwards from the secondary side through to the primary side of ‘downstream’ transformers.
This means not the generator voltage, but the stepped – up voltage from transformers upstream in a local grid (maybe street by street, or local subdivision). This can kill, and has, but laws vary, although just about all are at least misdemeanors. It is one reason why it sometimes takes so long to have power restored. Power companies have to find and correct/disconnect where people are backfeeding. Sometimes no one is home for whatever reason, but the generator is still on and backfeeding.
Yes, a proper transfer switch should be used, (DPDT or better), but it should also be an automatic (inspector code approved) installation. Yes, one should always trip the main breakers to be disconnected from incoming power line(s) if the decision is made to go ahead without a proper auto transfer switch, (IMO, a bad decision). But this is one of the seemingly easy answers to power outages than can turn out very badly indeed. Please google and/or otherwise inquire about local laws/regulations beforehand.
Thanks, Mr./Ms. Browder.
My unsolicited (again) two cents.
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The MC version of the Xantrex Inverters cannot “sell back” to the incoming line. That feature has been disabled. But, the generator “buddy plug” concept is very common and like others mentioned, with the correct and legal installation of either a sub-panel or transfer switch, it can make the convenient situation where your coach’s generator is your house backup. Just bear in mind what load you are supplying in the house, and make sure the combination of loads in coach and house do not overload your generator.
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I have a Liberty with a 12K generator and for the past several years have back fed my house during storms. I always keep the coach full of fuel and if. We lose power go from my buddy plug back to the 50 amp 220 V plug that I normally use to feed power to the coach. Just be sure turn off the breaker between your house and the street before you back feed your house.
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