How To Choose Between A Transfer Switch Vs Interlock Kit With Power Inlet Box

what's up guys adam here again and today i'm going to be talking about a very popular question it's a question that i've received on pretty much all of my generator related videos and you probably find yourself in a similar situation where you're trying to decide what is the best way to connect your generator in the event of a power outage to your house so maybe fairly recently you've been without power or in the past you've been without power you've decided it sucks and you don't want it to happen again so a lot of times more specifically the question is do i want to install a transfer switch or do i want to install an interlock kit with a power inlet box and the answer is pretty much always the same for me when i'm answering this question and it is it depends there's so many different scenarios and variables that can come into play with answering this question i'm going to be taking both of these devices the interlock kit and the transfer switch and kind of really breaking them down and putting them into different scenarios as to where i think that they fit or my opinion of who they might work best for give some pros and cons to each of them and hopefully by the end of this video i've given you enough information and some ideas as to where you fit in with either one of these devices and maybe it'll help you make a decision on which one to go with so let's go ahead and really tear these two apart and figure out which one might work best for you let's go so first we're going to talk about the transfer switch and one of the things i love about the transfer switch is it's basically a one stop shop and what i mean by a one stop shop is everything is included in this panel so once it's installed everything is done the way that this works is with a transfer switch it's basically a souped up sub panel in a way you're going to need to decide what circuit breakers you're going to want in your transfer switch because you're going to move them from your main panel and into your transfer switch and transfer switches can be all different sizes this particular one is an 8 circuit 30 amp transfer switch with a transfer switch one of the cons to it but is also one of the pros in my opinion is that you are limited on how many circuits you're going to be able to power at any given time now i say that's a pro and a con and the con is obviously that we're limited on how many circuit breakers we can have in this and we all want to be able to power as many things as possible but that con in my opinion is also a probe because you are limited you can take the size of whatever generator you have whether it's a smaller generator or more intermediate size generator which is what most people have and decide on whatever its output is then you can make a more educated decision on what circuits you're going to be able to put in this transfer switch that you deem necessary in the event of a power outage or an emergency so since you're limited on what circuits you can have here and once you've moved over those circuits that you know your generator is going to be able to power it just simplifies everything because you know that your generator is going to be able to handle the majority of or all of the circuits that are in your transfer switch whereas with a power inlet box with an interlock kit unless you have a really big generator you're constantly going to be going to your main panel and having to switch on and off different circuits so that you're not trying to pull more power from your generator than it's capable of producing so a transfer switch in that regard makes things a whole lot simpler so another great thing about transfer switch is you've got this little switch up here this is what makes this a transfer switch and not a sub panel you've got your power coming in from your main panel over here on the side and that is what is going to power all these circuits using a circuit breaker in your main panel when you have utility power this wire coming in from the top this is your generator cable that is connected to a power inlet box that then your generator connects to the supply the power to this box so this switch this is what disconnects this panel from either the generator or the utility power so there is no way it is completely impossible to back feed if you're on generator power it's completely impossible to then back feed into utility lines so if your power goes out it will be switched over here to utility power and then once you've got your generator hooked up you would then push this little button here and it would switch this box to be pulling its power then from the wire that's coming in from the generator and completely separate itself from the main panel where it usually gets its power now when your power comes back on when you're in generator mode this green light on this particular panel they're not all like this when your utility power comes back this green light will light up and at that point you can just push that little button there and it switches it over to utility power completely disconnecting from the generator even if the generator is still running you can just push that button completely separates it now who do i recommend gets a transfer switch more so people with smaller two intermediate and size generators i would say seven eight thousand watts and under should really consider getting one of these transfer switches just because you're never going to be able to run your whole house with a generator that size let alone maybe even half of it just depending and it just really comes down to the simplification and safety of things so the transfer switch really is a one-stop shop but speaking of shopping that is kind of one of the cons though it can be pretty expensive especially in comparison with the power inlet box and interlock kit installation between the transfer switch and all the wiring going to the power inlet box for instance and i also did buy some extra circuit breakers just to fit my particular needs and what i wanted in this transfer switch i'm in at about 550 to 600 dollars so it does come with a pretty high price tag in comparison but again it also just makes things a whole lot simpler and you have a lot of safety all encompassed in just one box so that brings us to our next method of connecting to the house which is this interlock kit here in conjunction with a power inlet box so this sliding piece of metal here is an interlock kit and the whole purpose of this is to make it impossible for the main breaker to be on at the same time as the breaker that is connected to your power inlet box those two cannot be on at the same time and the reason for that is for instance in the event of a power outage if you had your generator hooked up to your power inlet box and if this wasn't on here if you had the generator breaker on at the same time as the main breaker if you had your generator power running it would be then back feeding into the utility lines because this main is not shut off so this is the disconnect that keeps everything safe so there is no back feeding one way or the other now who do i recommend this interlock kit with power inlet box for people with bigger generators and the reason i say that is because if you're wanting to power your whole house if you have a really big generator this is the only way to go now this doesn't mean that someone with a smaller generator cannot install a power inlet box and interlock kit you absolutely can it's just not going to be as simple as the transfer switch because again you're going to have to be changing which circuit breakers are on in your main panel all of the time on top of that with a smaller generator you're never going to be able to fully run your entire main panel let alone probably even half of it so again it really just all comes down to how simple things are but the pro to this installation in particular is the cost because on the low side you're probably looking at about fifty dollars between the power inlet box and the interlock kit just depending on which ones you go with there are different grades of power inlet boxes thirty dollars on up to a hundred and some dollars and then also the interlock kits you can find them anywhere from like 12 bucks or this one in particular was i believe around 120 somewhere in there just because the manufacturer for my box they didn't have any in stock for a very long time and i needed one so just depends on which route you go as far as power inlet box and interlock kit so minimum investment in this installation is about 50 bucks maximum is going to be around 300 so hopefully i was able to answer some of those questions give you the information that you needed in order to decide which route was going to be best for you if this video was helpful for you please let me know by leaving a comment down in the comment section and of course if you have any questions at all maybe there's something i did not touch on that you need some clarification on then you can leave those down in the comments as well and if you like videos like i did here today then consider hitting that like and subscribe button and i look forward to seeing you in the next video see ya

Channel: How To Home

Views: 541,890

Keywords: transfer switch, transfer switch vs interlock, Interlock Kit, Power Inlet Box, How to hookup generator to house, how to connect generator to house power, transfer switch vs power inlet box, transfer switch vs interlock kit, generator interlock, portable generator, generator connection, generator transfer switch

Id: fXAsXwhjPRY

Length: 9min 22sec (562 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021