Posted: 1/22/2026 3:50:44 PM EDT
[Last Edit: konger][Edited]
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I picked up a Generac 6500 for the coming storm and would like to run at least the well pump, television, Starlink and a couple lights off of it. Probably not continuous, but occasionally. We have a wood stove that can heat the entire home. The question is how to hook up the well pump. The generator has a twist lock 240V outlet. I’m thinking of pulling the panel cover off, disconnecting the wires from the breaker and connecting them to a whip with a twist lock on the end. Sound reasonable? I don’t have a dedicated generator panel. Has anyone done this? Suggestions? Attached File |
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That's essentially what my dad did 40 years ago. Attached a 20' pigtail in parallel to the breaker, and ran it out the basement window to the generator after turning the well's breaker off. Then stuck a female socket over the plug to insulate it between power failures and coiled the cord around the pressure tank. Your way of disconnecting from the house wiring is safer. |
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Originally Posted By BFskinner: Install an interlock and backfeed your main panel through a 240v 50 amp receptacle. This, or wire in a manual generator transfer switch that lets you power the circuits you need. With a 5k generator I had to load balance between running the submersible well pump or the oil burner for heat and hot water. With an 8k genny I can run both at the same time. |
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I’m not installing a transfer switch h right now because I don’t have time honestly. That may come later though. For now, rough wired. I am concerned be pause I don’t know enough about generator power. I don’t want to damage an e pensive well pump in the process. I’m not sure there’s a breaker on the generator. |
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Easy would be to connect it direct to the pressure switch at the pump & turn the pump breaker/main off so as to not back-feed the panel. Lots of people locally use their clothes dryer plug to back feed the panel and turn off the main. I know that's "bad" but that's how an executive at my utility company powered his house during a storm so take it for what it's worth & YMMV. Any form of suicide/non-correct cord needs to be used carefully. Depending on your pump/well depth that genset may struggle starting the pump but once started it'll run it so get as much as you can stored up. I had a 7500/9500 and it was all it could do to start my pump which is relatively shallow. Correct way is at least a panel interlock and dedicated breaker with generator plug box. All my panels are interlocked and have dedicated generator inlets. |
| Do you know the HP of the pump? |
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Originally Posted By konger: I’m not installing a transfer switch h right now because I don’t have time honestly. That may come later though. For now, rough wired. I am concerned be pause I don’t know enough about generator power. I don’t want to damage an e pensive well pump in the process. I’m not sure there’s a breaker on the generator. A 6500w (assuming 7500w starting) generator is likely adequate to run your well pump. I would be more concerned about your wiring especially dealing with suicide cords and backfeeds. A proper interlock setup is about $300-$400 in material including wire. I would use this as a learning experience to prep properly for the next storm. |
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If you have a 240V outlet or powered device, I would back feed through that before pulling apart a panel box during an emergency situation. Dryer plug? Build a cable long enough to reach turn your main breaker off and power only what you need be turning on/off breakers as necessary. The generator you listed should power your well unless you have some huge power well pump. Do you have a pressure tank or are you using an on-demand system? If you are using a pressure tank one way you can reduce start up load is by reducing the head pressure on the pump. What I do is run my well intermittently and re fill the pressure tank as needed. This allows me to be sure there aren't other demands as I back feed my entire panel through a dedicated outdoor plug for the generator. I throw the breaker to the well pump, listen as it fills the pressure tank, when it clicks off and is filled back up, I turn the breaker back off. One reason I do this is because during long outages I use a 3k 240 generator and it powers my well fine, but I choose to ease the load running the well only once the system is out of pressure. We used to have long frequent power outages, but it's been a few years now since I went more than 3 days on generator power. I also have a 6500 noise maker for when I need some more power. |
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Originally Posted By Bushman_269: This, or wire in a manual generator transfer switch that lets you power the circuits you need. With a 5k generator I had to load balance between running the submersible well pump or the oil burner for heat and hot water. With an 8k genny I can run both at the same time. Did you ever put an amperage meter on the oil boiler to see what it actually was drawing? They usually take only a small amount of electricity to run a circuit board, small fuel pump, and a water circulation pump or two. The heat source would be the fuel oil, and any electric draw would only be in a supporting roll. I would be surprised if it was drawing more than a few hundred watts of electric. |
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Originally Posted By FALARAK: Interlock. Transfer switches are trash. This is correct. And swapping over from a transfer switch to an interlock is a pain in the neck…. All the interlock does is make sure you lock out the main power when backfeeding. It is required by code, but effectively you can turn off the main manually and backfeed in thru a large enough circuit and a suicide cord if you don’t have time to do the interlock installation. The main thing to remember- always turn off your main power, and turn off all your breakers, then you can pick and choose which ones to supply power to. Make sure to turn off all non essential appliances and such, and keep large 220 power draw circuits off. When my generator is powering the well pump, it definitely works a lot harder than when just supplying a few 120 circuits… |
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Originally Posted By tac556: This is correct. And swapping over from a transfer switch to an interlock is a pain in the neck…. All the interlock does is make sure you lock out the main power when backfeeding. It is required by code, but effectively you can turn off the main manually and backfeed in thru a large enough circuit and a suicide cord if you don’t have time to do the interlock installation. The main thing to remember- always turn off your main power, and turn off all your breakers, then you can pick and choose which ones to supply power to. Make sure to turn off all non essential appliances and such, and keep large 220 power draw circuits off. When my generator is powering the well pump, it definitely works a lot harder than when just supplying a few 120 circuits… Originally Posted By tac556: Originally Posted By FALARAK: Interlock. Transfer switches are trash. This is correct. And swapping over from a transfer switch to an interlock is a pain in the neck…. All the interlock does is make sure you lock out the main power when backfeeding. It is required by code, but effectively you can turn off the main manually and backfeed in thru a large enough circuit and a suicide cord if you don’t have time to do the interlock installation. The main thing to remember- always turn off your main power, and turn off all your breakers, then you can pick and choose which ones to supply power to. Make sure to turn off all non essential appliances and such, and keep large 220 power draw circuits off. When my generator is powering the well pump, it definitely works a lot harder than when just supplying a few 120 circuits… I prefer transfer switches whenever possible. But, it's not always possible and in those cases, interlock kits are good. I run my 1 hp well pump with a 5500 watt (larger surge rating) generator. It grunts when it starts up but it starts and runs it without any issues. I have a whole house 200 amp transfer switch and a second 120v only transfer switch after the 200 amp transfer switch that handles essential circuits. But, I built the house and wired it myself so I could set it up however I wanted to. |
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Originally Posted By lumper: Did you ever put an amperage meter on the oil boiler to see what it actually was drawing? They usually take only a small amount of electricity to run a circuit board, small fuel pump, and a water circulation pump or two. The heat source would be the fuel oil, and any electric draw would only be in a supporting roll. I would be surprised if it was drawing more than a few hundred watts of electric. The circulator isn't the problem its the starting amps for the gun nozzle and ignitor when the burner is firing up. Once it was running I could power the circuit for the well pump. The problem was if the burner shut down because it reached temp on restart it would continue cycling trying to start. |
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Originally Posted By FALARAK: FIFY Originally Posted By FALARAK: Originally Posted By jagdterrier: I also have a well pump so I had an electrician install an ETA: just to be clear, the Correct. It's out of habit |
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Originally Posted By ColtRifle: I prefer transfer switches whenever possible. But, it's not always possible and in those cases, interlock kits are good. I run my 1 hp well pump with a 5500 watt (larger surge rating) generator. It grunts when it starts up but it starts and runs it without any issues. I have a whole house 200 amp transfer switch and a second 120v only transfer switch after the 200 amp transfer switch that handles essential circuits. But, I built the house and wired it myself so I could set it up however I wanted to. 200 AMP transfer switch!! Yeah that is a whole different situation. You can connect a much larger generator to that- 10 times larger almost. So yeah that would be different. My transfer switch install predates the common availability of interlock switches, so I basically have the well + 4 120v circuits. Pretty minimal, but still very nice when the power goes out- living room/TV/ fireplace fan, microwave, fridge, and one freezer. Would not choose all those same circuits again, but with an interlock you just get to pick and choose and have most circuits available as needed. |
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Originally Posted By konger: I’m not installing a transfer switch h right now because I don’t have time honestly. That may come later though. For now, rough wired. I am concerned be pause I don’t know enough about generator power. I don’t want to damage an e pensive well pump in the process. I’m not sure there’s a breaker on the generator. Then make sure it’s a pure sign wave out put on the generator. |
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Originally Posted By Eyeore1966: Easy would be to connect it direct to the pressure switch at the pump & turn the pump breaker/main off so as to not back-feed the panel. Lots of people locally use their clothes dryer plug to back feed the panel and turn off the main. I know that's "bad" but that's how an executive at my utility company powered his house during a storm so take it for what it's worth & YMMV. Any form of suicide/non-correct cord needs to be used carefully. Depending on your pump/well depth that genset may struggle starting the pump but once started it'll run it so get as much as you can stored up. I had a 7500/9500 and it was all it could do to start my pump which is relatively shallow. Correct way is at least a panel interlock and dedicated breaker with generator plug box. All my panels are interlocked and have dedicated generator inlets. there are capacitor boxes that assist in starting large inductive loads from things like pumps and refrigerators - look into it. |
Never make another person a priority when they merely see you as an option...
"Some People Are Like Slinkies. They're Not Really Good For Anything, But They Bring a Smile To Your Face When Pushed Down The Stairs."
"Some People Are Like Slinkies. They're Not Really Good For Anything, But They Bring a Smile To Your Face When Pushed Down The Stairs."
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Last year I replaced my deep well pump with a Grundfos pump. The nice thing about it is it has soft start circuitry built into it. Since I run my house off my diy solar system I had left the other pump on the grid so the inverter wouldn't accidentally trip if running a heavy load and the pump kicks on. Since then the house pump and deep pump have been running off the inverter with no problem along with the rest of the house except the oven and clothes dryer. We almost never use the oven but the dryer gets used to fluff the clothes before they get hung up out side. I run the house off of two transfer switches which is nice because it is not all or nothing like an interlock would be and since my solar hobby has grown into me becoming a member of the "Independence Power and Light Company " . When my solar production falls short I can put circuits one at a time back on the grid if I need to. Transfer switches have been perfect for my situation and I have been using them since 2008 with no problems at all. They are perfect if you want to start with a small solar system to power a few circuits with. |
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Originally Posted By CoyoteGray: Bingo! Do it right… Thats fine and dandy if there's time to do that. I have had the the time but still didnt do any of that. I have the same as op, a 240 volt ,4 wire twist lock on my 7550 generator. I wired a 8awg , 4 wire romex with a twist lock to two 40amp breakers in my panel. A 40 amp for each 200a panel (400a service). It has worked fine to feed the whole house except the AC. Yes you have to make sure and not run anything unnecessarily. It was like this for a few years and I decided to install an interlock on the main breaker. But I still have to make sure i turn off the other main in the other 200a panel. I have no way to interlock that one as its a stand alone 200a main. Works fine if you're not too dumb. I wrote an instruction sheet and even my wife or sone can follow it to get things going if im not there . Do t want to kill a lineman (me) in the process of backfeeding a service. |