MEP 003a Question

[Chrispyny]

Every joint between conductors is a possibility of resistive heating or arcing. Yes, it's allowed, and yes I've done it. But, particularly when carrying a generator's whole output into a panel, I tend toward conservatism, and would have done as you did.

Thats EXACTLY what i was thinking. Thats a whole lot of juice to be carrying into my house thru a splice. I spent all the money on a new panel, subpanel to garage , power inlet box, and now a mep-002a only to cheap out on some wire and time ?
The power inlet is 2 feet below the panel box, and on the other side of the wall. It was a 2 foot run that i needed three feet to do correctly. Now had it been several feet thru walls etc, i think i would have cheaped out !

 

[tim292stro]

Yeah but (and I'm not disagreeing with your desire for conservatism here...), remember they connect the power cables to the breaker panel with clamping set-screws - same on the main power feed on the wire/pole. I wouldn't use wire nuts for 10kW, but I'd feel perfectly fine using power splice blocks.

 

[steelypip]

At the risk of sounding like a fossil, the only splices I really like carrying lots of amps tend to be soldered lineman splices. Yes, there's the possibility of enough resistive heating to cause thermal stress failure of the solder, but the joint is very strong (stronger than the wire, says NASA), and has double the conductor cross-section. Have used and do use splice blocks. As you say, they are basically what connects the service line to the panel anyway, and there's no referring to 110.14B required with inspectors.

It's a rather muscular exercise to make a lineman splice in heavy gauge wire, and then there's the whole hot solder thing. OTOH it really is just as good as solid wire, it's just as likely to come to grief, and there's no torque wrench required.

 

[dkpaintball]

just to Give everyone an update here, It was actually very simple to hook up the generator to my house. I had more trouble feeding the cables through the conduit than anything. 3 wires from generator following the diagram on the generator itself, to the breaker box, and one wire from the box to the ground rod. Fired it up and its all good to go. Thank you to everyone for the support and advice. Just wanted to let everyone know I hadnt killed myself in the process haha

 

[bones1]

Typically, they are neutral bonded. Easy enough to unbolt the bonding wire from back of chassis ground lug.

Help. Can you tell me exactly where this lug is nonded please. I think i found the correct wire but not sure.

 

[bones1]

Both of mine were bonded to the chassis

Hi. Do you have a pucture of where they are. I need to be sure i have the correct neutral wire to un bond.

 

[bones1]

dont forget to remove the nuetral/ground bond at the gen. if your connected to your house. its the 6 gauge wire coming from the back of ac output box to the back of the generator ground nut.

Can you supply a picture of where this is please?. Thanks

 

[bones1]

Can you supply a picture of where this is please?. Thanks

 

[bones1]

View attachment 814529

 

[bones1]

 

[bones1]

View attachment 814531

Is this the neutral bonding jumper thats disconnected from ground?. It is smaller than the wire on the back of the L0 lug .If so I leave it off for a 4 wire setup and use no ground rod at the generator

 

[Guyfang]

I believe you need permits and an Electrician to do this. If not the electrician (assuming you are one), you still need permits. At 10kW 120V you are basically talking about standard 100Amp service. there is plety of energy there to start fires or kill if not done correctly.

There are NEC requirements that must be met for even off-grid systems inside of county/city Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), you don't want to wing it and then find out your insurance doesn't cover an electrocution or fire after the fact.

For any system NEC says you will need to ground at the point of generation. For metered homes with a transformer on the pole, NEC says the meter is the point of generation and that's where the ground/neutral bond goes. If you are running the generator as your only source of power for this installation, you need to ground at the generator as close to the neutral bond as is possible (there is usually a case bolt for ground that civilians are ignorant of). This makes the GFCI (if equipped) work correctly since all current that leaves the generator comes back on the current carrying conductors (Line/Neutral), anything that doesn't come back on those is assumed to be lost to ground and anything at 6mA or more should trip GFCI. You may not have more than ONE ground/neutral bond in any system - this causes current to be split between the ground and neutral wires (BAD!!!!!!).

Keep in mind that if you have more than one source of generation (pole/grid power, generator) the NEC codes are not just there for you and your friends/family/guests, think about that poor guy on the pole at 3am who just needs to finish this one job before going home to his new wife and baby - winging it is not allowed specifically for that.

If you are not an electrician, and you don't have permits for this (in an actual taxable home, and this is basically any home in the US) STOP!!!!!

You know enough to ask for help, here's your help - don't get fined because you didn't have a permit or electrician do the work. It sucks, but electricians know the AHJ rules and practices, if you can find an electrician buddy to help with the design BEFORE you get the permits, and the installation AFTER you get the permits, and be around during the INSPECTION, you're better off.

Fines for unpermitted work start in the low $1,000s in most areas, and lawsuits for personal injury or wrongful death due to gross negligence start in the high 100,000s.

Be safe.

I am just an old generator mechanic. Not an electrical engineer. But if you don't reread this post and follow it, one day you or someone one you love could get killed. Or someone you do not know or love. But dead is dead. Lots of folks wing it on things. They get away with it for years. Then one day, the world ends. Some losses a house, looses a life, because you don't want to fool with codes and proper workmanship. Think about it. You can still help, even do most of the work. But you need a pro, to tell you what RIGHT, and not a shi* house electrician. Please do not be offended. I do this sort of thing here in Germany. Have been to several houses that burned down, and twice were someone got killed. I would not want to live with myself knowing I caused that.