Assuming, of course, that the Apocalypse leaves the petrochemical industry intact. I ran the complete generator test and ran our furnace, fridges, and sundry lighting without a hitch. Here’s a picture of the split circuit running the fridges and lights, and the generator doing its thing.
Here’s the switch for the fridge circuit. This one was a little trickier as I had to wire into the main breaker box.
Here’s a switch installed in my basement. This feeds the furnace.
Over the last year we’ve had a long time without power; between Hurricane Irene and the blizzard in October we’ve been dark for about 7 days. This is bad enough in the summer (losing a freezer full of food is expensive) but it’s really serious in the winter (frozen pipes are Bad News). So we bought a generator and I’m modifying our house wiring so we can run the essentials from it.
Here are two of the three boxes I’m making. Pretty simple really, just a switch, a breaker and a recessed male socket for the generator cord.
