Reliance Transfer Switch Tutorial

[Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] and I know it's a busy night for their service you explained the the rationale and closing down access to [Applause] the reliance controls power transfer system for portable generators a sensible emergency power control panel for your home lets you control backup power as easily as turning on light switches takes the worry out of power outages forever to give you great peace of mind this instructional video is intended to be a supplement to the installation instructions included with your reliance transfer switch please be sure to read the enclosed instructions in their entirety installation of a reliance transfer switch is very easy and in most cases will take less than one hour however the installer must be somewhat familiar with household wiring and comfortable with removing the cover of your existing electrical panel and working inside of it if you are at all unsure about performing this installation yourself it is best to hire a professional electrician in all cases we recommend having your work double-checked by an experienced individual this is the transfer switch most installed by professional electricians for backup power from a portable generator but you can do it yourself and I'm going to walk you through a typical installation let's begin by looking at some of the tools we'll need for installation a drill drill bits wire stripper wire cutter Phillips head screwdriver straight blade screwdriver a hammer a flashlight for working in the dark we will either need screws if we are mounting to apply wood backing or anchors if we are mounting to block or concrete there are several different kinds available we're going to use screw type anchors for this installation before we can begin the reliance transfer switch installation we'll need to decide what household circuits we want to operate during a power outage but first let's look at the transfer switch itself these are the switches the transfer power from the utility to your generator and these are the circuit breakers that correspond to each switch the transfer switch circuits that have 15 amp breakers can be installed on any 15 or 20 amp household circuit but the transfer switches that have 20 amp breakers can only be installed on a 20 amp household circuit if you have a double pole or 240 volt circuit you would like to operate like a well pump it must be on the center or C&D circuits if you don't need to power a 240 volt circuit this handle tie can be removed with the two screws and the C and D switches can operate two separate single pole or 120 volt circuits your generator will operate most efficiently if you can divide the power used evenly between the two sides of the transfer switch think of your generators having two outputs one that powers one-half of the transfer switch and one that powers the other half there is a chart in your installation manual that shows the wattage requirements for some typical household devices when choosing which circuits to operate try to divide the total wattage evenly between the two sides of the transfer switch be sure to refer to your installation manual for more details on load balancing I'd also like to point out the other transfer switch features which are the watt meters that measure the power used by the generator and the power Inlet where the generator is plugged in if your transfer switch has a cover over this opening you'll be installing a remote power Inlet box we'll talk more about that later after choosing the circuits we're going to power during an outage we need to locate the corresponding circuit breakers and mark them in the main panel we'll do this before we take the cover off the panel because it would be much more difficult to identify the breakers after the cover is off I'm going to attach the furnace fan to circuit a so I'll locate the firm this breaker and mark it with tape as I look at the load center circuit breaker diagram I can see that the furnace is on breaker number seven now I'll locate breaker number seven and mark it with the letter A the next appliance I'd like to power is the refrigerator in this panel it's on the kitchen circuit which is number nine I've now finished labeling the circuit breakers we've chosen also to power the sump pump livingroom lights and well pump note that the well pump is on a double pole circuit breaker and will be powered by transfer switch circuits C and D next step is to remove the cover from the main panel but first we want to be sure to turn off the main circuit breaker this will cut off power to the entire house and you may need a flashlight from here on please be aware that even though this panel is off there is still live power at the top where the utility power comes in to mount the transfer switch we're first going to choose a three-quarter inch knockout in the bottom of the main panel chosen to knock out close to the center of the bottom to make it easier to bring wires up each side of the panel I'm first going to pull the wires through the knockout into the panel then I can snap the conduit fitting into the knockout opening be sure not to over bend to the flexible conduit now we can mark the holes for mounting the transfer switch use appropriate anchors to securely mount the transfer switch in the main panel locate the neutral bar this is where all the white wires are attached we're going to attach the white wire from the transfer switch to that bar attach the white wire to any open position in the neutral bar the green wire should be attached to the grounding bar in the main panel in most cases the grounding bar in the neutral bar are the same the only exception is if you are installing the transfer switch on a sub panel in our case the grounding bar in the neutral bar are the same so I'm going to attach the green wire in the same bar as the white wire make sure you tighten all screws to the panel manufacturers specifications now we can wire in the individual transfer switch circuits each switch on the transfer switch has a corresponding red and black wire in the conduit assembly these are the wires we'll need to connect the a circuit to the furnace why are these into the furnace will first need to turn off the circuit breaker that we labeled a previously now remove the existing wire from that breaker next we'll take the red wire labeled a from the transfer switch and cut it to an appropriate length to be inserted into the furnace circuit breaker strip that wire about 3/8 of an inch and connect it to the furnace breaker finally we'll take the black wire labeled a from the transfer switch cut it to an appropriate length strip it and use a wire nut to tie it to the wire that we removed from the furnace circuit breaker the a circuit is now wired to the furnace through our transfer switch we can now repeat this procedure for the other 120 volt circuits repeating that procedure for the B circuit we'll turn off the breaker remove the wire take the red wire labeled B from the transfer switch put it in the breaker take the black lei wire labeled B from the transfer switch and attach it to the wire that we removed from the breaker with a wire nut because our 240 volt well pump is on a double pole circuit breaker will need both the C and D circuits from the transfer switch installation is the same as the 120 volt single pole circuits except that will connect the C wires to one half of the double pole breaker and the D wires to the other half turn off the breaker remove the wire take the red wire labeled C and put it in one half of the breaker take the black wire labeled C and tie it to the wire that was in that side of the breaker take the red wire labeled D take the black wire labeled D and tie it to the wire that we removed tuck the wires in a little bit and now we're done with the wiring this is what you completed transfer switch wiring will look like the only thing left is to put the cover back on the panel and turn the circuit breakers back on it's always a good idea to double-check your wiring before you attach the cover with the cover back on we can turn the main breaker back on and the individual circuits we turned off during installation there is a label on the top of the transfer switch it allows us to make a record of what the switches control the remote power Inlet box is an accessory that allows you to plug in your generator in a location that may be more convenient it can be located indoors or out installs easily with common building wire you may choose to mount the inlet box indoors in your garage around the outside of your house for this demonstration I'm going to mount the box indoors near the transfer switch remove the cover by loosening the screw on the front the power Inlet box has knockouts on the back sides and bottom if you're going to be using the back knockout you may want to remove it before mounting the box to the wall you screws or anchors to mount the box next we'll run our building wire from the power Inlet box to the transfer switch next we'll remove the appropriate knockouts in the power Inlet box and the transfer switch these two screws remove the transfer switches front panel next remove the knockout for the power in that box run the building wire from the inlet box with the transfer switch using the wire clamps to hold it in place the terminals on the power Inlet are marked W X and y the white wire is inserted into the W terminal the black into the X and the red into the Y the green wire and the ground wire in the building wire are attached to the grounding terminal on the power Inlet box after the wires are attached we can put the front cover in place and tighten the front screw this end is complete be sure to leave plenty of wire inside the transfer switch [Music] [Music] use wire connectors to make the internal wire connections black to black red to red white to white and green to ground the red and black wires should each pass through one of the current transformers attached to the meters replace the transfer switch front panel and the installation is complete to make sure you and your generator are ready for a power outage test your generator and practice operating the transfer switch here's what to do when the power goes out connect the cord to the generator and then to the transfer switch the connector should be pushed in then rotated to lock in place start your generator and wait for the engine to warm up and operate smoothly the switches on the transfer switch are normally in the line position move the switches to the jhen position one at a time the key circuits in your home are now being powered by the generator there is no need to turn off the main circuit breaker or any of the individual breakers in the main panel when the utility power comes back on move the switches back to the line position turn off the generator and put the cord away congratulations you've now installed and operated the reliance controls transfer switch and you're fully prepared for the next power outage there are many more details in your installation and operating instructions and answers to many frequently asked questions available online at WWE [Music] [Music]

Channel: Century Fuel Products

Views: 242,126

Keywords: Reliance, Transfer, Switch, generator

Id: hil1X3KMi_c

Length: 22min 10sec (1330 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 11 2014