Man, I lost track of the time off from the project. I think it's been 4 weeks...feels like months. I called my excavator pal a couple days ago for a report on how deep the snow might be out in the woods. He asked me if I wanted him to go over there. "No, you don't have to do that...that's crazy...I just want to know if it's over 3 or 4" cuz that will stop our 2 x 4 truck from gettin' in". He estimated that it was probably closer to 6" and noted that he was working on a job right now that was right around the corner. He never called me back. Dang it! Oh well, I packed it in and made the trip early Sat. morning. I expected that I was gonna be making the 1/3 mile trip in and out on foot 4 or 5 times to get my stuff in. When I got there, he was right...the snow was too deep...except for my driveway. That part was MUCH better, particularly since he plowed it with the bucket on the backhoe! Yeah baby! (wait until I get THAT bill). I drove right in and unpacked. Good start for the weekend. - Finishing the ridge on the metal roof continues to be my number one project, but I now know it has to be ideal conditions before I go back up there. This trip wasn't the deal; maybe next weekend. Instead, I switched to the interior electrical. - I wanted to get power and some basic lighting upstairs. Before I can do so, though, I had to prepare the power source at the breaker box. I want/need an auxilliary source of power. Over the course of many conversations with the field tech from the power company (as we prepared for the utility power feed), he reminded me that when power goes down way out in the country, it can be slow coming back up. As much as I would love to install a nice 12-15,000 kw propane generator with the automatic switch, the cost is way beyond our budget. Since we already have a decent 5.5 kw gasoline generator (the unit we have been using for all our electrical power needs up until the utility power was installed a couple months ago), I wanted to find a reasonable way to rig it for emergency use on our garage/apartment without running miles of orange extension cords when power goes down. The answer was this weekend's project. I set a switching sub-panel directly adjacent to the main breaker box and ran an 1-1/4" rigid nipple between the two boxes. Before I purchased the sub-panel, I called my inspector to make sure it was OK. I got the green light and picked it up on Ebay. You electrician guysez are already familiar with it. It was kinda new to me. At first, it seemed a bit complicated. After I got into it, it's a no-brainer project. Starting at the main breaker box, a 60 amp 220v double breaker sends a power feed into the sub-panel and ties directly into another 60 amp 220v double breaker on the sub-panel main buss bars. The next step is to select which circuits in the building that I want to run during an emergency power outage. These selected circuits will tap their power feed from this sub-panel. Here is where the generator comes into play. Right next to the 60 amp 220v double breaker inside the sub-panel (the dbl breaker receving it's power feed from the main breaker box) is another 220v double breaker. This second unit is only 30 amps because it will be the point where I feed my 5.5 kw gas generator into the sub-panel. These 2 double breakers are next-door neighbors on the sub-panel buss bar for a good reason. There is a pivoting metal mechanical bar between the two power feed breakers that will only allow one of them to be turned on at once. Pretty cool, pretty simple. In the above pic, only the utility power feed is connected. I have not completed the power feed for the generator breaker. It will consist of another rigid pipe coming off of the sub-panel and running out to one last smaller outlet box. The outlet box will have an 220v outlet that will marry up to the 20 foot pigtail cord that will run to the generator output. If a power outage does occur, I push the pigtail plug into the generator, push the other end of the 20' pigtail into the outlet next to the sub-panel, wheel the generator just outside the garage door and close the door down over the pigtail. Fire up the gennie and go back inside and flip the breaker with the protective rocker arm. Hopefully I remembered to keep fresh gasoline in stock (along with Seafoam...right Rainman?). - After this little project, I tapped my first 2 trunk line circuits and ran them over to the living room and kitchen area of the upstairs. I got in one circuit of 5 outlet boxes and some lighting for the upstairs. Finally...no more long extension cords.
