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Using bus generator as house backup.
The new service for our house enters the race shop (and then branches over to the house) right next to where the coach parks. The electrician has a transfer switch all installed. All he needs to do to finish is put in a reeptable to plug the cord from the bus into it. I plan on using the 50amp “buddy plug” that Liberty has in the electrical bay.
I’m sure I’m not the first guy who has done this. What kind of plug did the rest of you guy use to plug into the “stationary house”? The electrician found this box and receptacle. I notice that it looks like the shore power plug in the curb side of the bus, so I could use the same cord for curb side shore power as well as powering the stationary house off the coach generator, and if I can find an adaptor I could use that cord as an extension to the shore power cord on the reel in the street side of the coach.
I’m now realizing that the plugs on the coach are only 50amps. 50amps x 120 volts gives me 6,000 watts. 50 amps x 240 volts is 12,000 watts. The Kohler is 20,000 (which I assume is peak, so 80% for cointiuous gives me 16,000 watts). By hooking the bus generator to the stationary house like this, am I leaving generator capacity on the table that I could give to the house using another method of hooking this up?
Or is this the way the rest of you have hook your bus generator to your stationary homes?
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14 Replies
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Yes you’re leaving some generator capacity on the table. Getting all the generator capacity to the house would require a larger gauge power cord, recepticals, and probably rewiring some of the bus. Doable, but expensive and certainly into the point of diminishing returns.
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That receptacle looks like it is a 110 Volt, so you would only be able to power one bus in your house. Your house, if it is like the majority of houoses, has two busses of 110 V each, and 220 V between each bus. If you have a 50 Amp 4-prong plug like you normally plug into shore poower from your coach, you can power both house busses.
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The unit shown is a 240 volt unit. The ground is thru the outside connector of the plug. It is okay, but why not use the female of the coach plug? That way you would have an extension cord when not powering the house.
Mikee
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Mikee is dead on, it’s a 240 volt and by using a female receptacle, you could then use just an extension.
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Mikee makes a good point, that was my original plan. Then I did some searching on the coach and discovered the shore power receptacle on the curb side is this same as this. So by using this type of receptacle on the stationary house, I can use the same cord to power the stationary house as well as access shore power from the curb side of the coach. I will look for an adapter so I can hook the new cord to the shore power reel cord as Tom pointed out.
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So Dick what amp is your transfer switch and what amp service feeds your facility?
If you limited your self to 50 amp,would you not have to dedicate to certain breakers for the house,
because of your wire size? I am all electric and my panel is 400 amp. I have a transfer switch that is 200 amp
{because I did not want pay for a 400 amp}so its dedecated to just one of the panels.I loaded that panel to the max with must haves when the power goes out. However I have 30K military generator with big plug ins.I owned
it before the coach. Or that 20K in the coach would do the job fine I think.Plus it would get exerised way more often -
I have used the bus ginny for power a couple of time in the last couple of years. I made up a cord that would reach the buddy plug to the 50 amp outlet that I plug the bus into when home. So I am backfeeding from the ginny to my house. Since this not a auto setup I make sure the main breaker on the electrial panel is off so I am not back feeding into the electrial grid when I hook up to the bus.
Larry A. Nelson
2002 XLII Vision
2012 Honda CRV
Hurricane, Ut
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I do the same, made up a power cable using two male 50amp ends, plug in to my coach buddy receptacle and my 50 amp house receptacle, works great. Besure to turn off Main house disconnect switch.
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I’ve done the same. I have to feed the house and the garage so I use a power outlet box with two 50 amp receptacles. I plug the house in one and the garage in the other.
If I am running emergency power using my bus generator it is only going to be for critical items such as the well pump, refrigerators, furnace if necessary and some outlets. That is because of the 50 amp limit of the buddy plug. We likely would move into the bus because we would still have ample power for lights, A/C units, etc.
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My new service is 320 amps and the backup receptacle will feed into the transfer switch which is massage. From the transfer switch the power feeds into the race shop panel as well as the 200amp panel in the house. The new meter is on the back of the race shop right next to where the back receptacle is going. Once the receptacle is in stalled, I’m going to test it and require the electrician to prove the transfer switch really works, even though I can see that when the cover is off the panel.
So Larry, Gary, and Jon are all backfeeding their generators into their houses/shops? (I just took a very deep breath.) Do you guys know that is illegal in many (if not all) jurisdictions? Even if you turn the main breaker off and isolate your service from the grid. Its my understanding that some POCO linemen have been serious injured and killed due to backfeeding.
I don’t understand why anyone would take the risk of backfeeding. If the power goes out, the chances of getting caught could be high. All the building inspector has to do is drive down the street looking for lights on and then check how that is being done. Transfer switches aren’t expensive and I can’ believe it takes more than a couple of hours for an electrician to do it correctly.
I would rather get caught drunk with a coach illegally titled in Montana than get caught backfeeding from the generator … even if the main breaker has been thrown.
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When I am forced to do this by long outages I always cut the seal and pull the meter. The power company told me that it’s OK as long as the meter is pulled. I’ve only resorted to that when a long period of power loss was expected. There are stand-by power systems that are allowed, such as for hospitals, government facilities and other essential services where the stand-by generators start automatically on a loss of the normal power siource, but they are expensive systems and are individually approved.
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Dick,
I’m thinking you should look into a Generac propane fired 25-35 KW standby genset. Run the hole house, even if your gone to Fla. in the winter…That is what I did.
Steve
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Dick, I am well aware of the potential danger to linemen and so far we haven’t had an outage of sufficient length of time to require me to connect my generator to my house and garage.
I will always trip the main breaker. I used the word emergency and if I am powering my house and garage it is an emergency.
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That is what I did. They made a drawing and helped me get set up. the kids have natural gas back ups that come on automatic. Been doing this for 20 years+ We are in ice belt== snow belt is further north of the ohio river and 40 miles south they get mostly rain. Ice is tuff on lines and have been without 2 weeks in January. The standing joke is plug the house into bus..Had 7 poles down comming down our drive several years ago. Stay alive aand be safe. Ck out neutral ground bonding when using a generator mounted in a bus. To much detail to explain here and easily misunderstood…
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