Nothing that I'm aware of.. You could use a non-contact AC voltage sensing pen but you would need to do this manually periodically.. Ray
You can use one of these alarms without actually tapping into the main. http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Cont...toring/dp/B003KREORA/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Ray, I knew it wasn't 100% kosher. Funny thing is this guy was a union electrician. There are a few items that are not code but not particularly dangerous. Some are annoying, like the genny is wired in via a suicide cord and uses a 3 phase plug/receptacle on the house side. Grrr.
Those suicide plugs are scary! I'd be rethinking that for sure! Licensed electricians know better than this.. Make it as safe and easy that the least technical person can handle the equipment without endangering life and property.. Ray
I Agree, as I said I did not like the blue wire on the main. A good Idea but not safe enough I would want the same gauge wire as the main going to the fuse, but as I understand that would still be a violation At least I would insulate that blue wire as much as possible to the fuse and make sure it is not touching anything metal
1st you should have run a 4 wire ( separate ground and neutral) 2nd that should be a #10 for 30 amp You're gonna burn your own house down. Hire a licensed electrician.... WIRING IS NOT A HOBBY
I have a pellet stove, if the power goes, so goes my heat. The pellet stove has an electronic component board that will not tolerate any power that isn't clean sine wave. In fact, any of your electronics won't tolerate a dirty sine wave. I've been looking around. There are things to clean the power up. Seems costly. Also there are generators rated with clean sine wave. But hard to know what to trust.
I agree the fuse should've at least been in the same box as the mains. Using the same gauge wire would be impractical as my service entry is 4-0 Copper and hooking that up to a 15 amp Edison base fuse holder could be a bit tricky.
I was saying what would be safe not practical You could add a inline fuse (automobile type would do) just don,t ground your self when touching the line
Electronics like computers and TV's all convert the as power from you wall to DC internally to power the circuit, this conversion filters much of the noise and they are actually a lot less sensitive to the shape of the ac wave then we think. Problem is that cheap contractor generators use an rpm governor to maintain 3600 rpm to make 60 hz and 120v and as the load changes the lag in the governor reaction causes spikes and sags in both voltage and frequency. That does cause electronic damage. The solution if you are willing to spend is to buy an inverter generator from Honda, Yamaha, Champion, etc. Inverters have other benefits as well - better fuel economy and typically much quieter. Alternately a cheaper option is to hook up sensitive electronics to your generator via a good quality UPS or line conditioner. This is what I do. The UPS has to be a 'true sine wave' model ( I use APC SmarUPS). You will probably have to turn down the UPS voltage sensitivity or it may just go on battery even connected to the gen.
And the 4 wire stuff is always labeled "/3+G". So what mw has probably is 10/3+G and is correct. The number refers to the number of current carrying conductors.
I was instructed on how to do this by a good friend who is an electrician of over 25 years. I don't play with electric, don't like it, even though I am a low voltage license holder.
Recently a coworker was cleaning out his cellar and gave me a roll of 10/3 and to my surprise it did not have w/g or w/ground on the jacket.. This Romex did not have a ground just black,white and red conductors! I didn't know they made Romex like this! This cable didn't look super old either so this will become scrap now.. Ray
I made a battery back-up system just for my pellet stove. It works like a charm and have enough power to supply until I get home to power the generator. Mind you, I paid close to a $1k but it's a very good puresinewave system. The previous Noma back-up system I had was a piece of junk but it saved my butt a few times until it died. The generator way to go is with a Yamaha or Honda for electronic clean power...
Pic to show the set-up! The battery pack has been changed to a couple of Trojan batteries. The batteries showing are what I salvaged from the junk Noma system until I received my Trojan's.
