Interlock kit all day long. Just label your critical breakers in the panel to have on during an outage. Exact same as a transfer switch except the added benefit of being able to energize any other breaker as you see fit. Personally I prefer the flexibility of running anything in the house. A transfer switch removes any flexibility you have and forces a compromise. I have an 11,000 watt dual fuel on a 50 amp inlet but I could also use my 3300 watt on the same inlet with reduced breakers live at once. I appreciate the video, thanks!

Super. Somebody is missing the ball by not making main breakers with extra generator terminals and wire control so that you can just hit a switch in your house and the main kicks off, connecting the generator. Yes, auto-transfer switches, but i'm talking inexpensive retrofit, not complete replacement. (Remote starting is possible with any generator that has a starter motor, so you would not have to go outside at all.) You can shut off almost anything inside that is not needed without killing the breaker. 💙 T.E.N.

Generally I think an interlock switch would work best for most people no matter the size of your generator. It allows you to easily change the loads and the size of generator. Clear instructions on its use should be posted in or near the panel. Lets say you were making dinner on your electric stove when the power went out, and you have a smaller generator. You can turn on the breakers for the range and kitchen lights. After the meal you can turn of the range and turn on the hot water heater and dishwasher. In the winter you would want the furnace on, in the summer the AC, or fans. If you're working in the garage you can turn those circuits on. With a transfer switch you are stuck with what you decided when you installed it.

Interlock. 100%. You have complete control of what circuits you want to have power to in your entire house. Not to mention it is so much cheaper (and easier) to install.

Awesome video Adam, You do a great job keeping it simple and direct call covering all the bases.

Perfect video! Straight forward information. Exactly the info I’ve been searching for, thank you!👍

Also I want to mention it DO exist transfer switches that don't hook into a subpanel, but into the main panel instead, which only consist of a tranfer switch and give same flexibility as an interlock. There are lots of transfer switches, even transfer switches that can automatically measure load current, and automatically start up generators and transfer over the power to backup when grid disappears, and transfer back & shut down generators when grid comes back. Some of these transfer switches will also have a in-line UPS too, so you have completely 100% uninterrupted power.

Transfer switch is more ideal. 1) Interlocks can’t be used everywhere legally, transfer switches can. 2) When the power is out people shouldn’t try to keep their home running exactly like before. It’s wasteful with fuel (which could be in short supply) and most people only use 50% of a generator capacity at any given time. A transfer switch makes people focus on what they really need and have it be sized to the generator they have.

Excellent info and presented quickly/professionally.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I am looking into a couple of different scenarios with generators for a couple people. So this is educational for me.

This really breaks everything down so well. I really appreciate this video prior to meeting with an electrician for an install.

Very helpful. Now I finally know what I'm going to do to connect my gen to my house.

Gave all the information I needed in the most simplistic way, thanks.

Really high quality video. This in conjunction with your other video on the power inlet box puts together the whole topic in a really short amount of time.

Great info, thanks! It seems like the interlock is the only decent option for us. We have two furnaces running off an 80A sub panel in the furnace room, which also has breakers for lights and outlets in almost half the house. The 200A main panel in the electrical room powers the kitchen, water and sewage pumps (we’re on a well and septic), and the remaining lights and outlets. Given the staircase and finished walls and ceiling between the furnace and electrical rooms plus other framing obstacles, it would be a nightmare wiring job to connect the furnaces to a transfer switch in the other room.

Thanks for the excellent video. Concise and to the point. From the beginning, you set out to give us points to consider in each situation, as opposed to a definite answer that might not fit everyone. Well done.

Bravo!! Finally a video that was helpfull and understandable at the same time. I have watched several how to do videos on transfer switches. This is the first one that was clear and to the point. Thank you!!!

Well done. direct and to the point with no rambling, Thank you

I had the Generac 30-amp Homelink transfer switch professionally installed. At that time, I had only a 2000w Harbor Freight inverter generator. When utility power failed, the small generator, with only two 120v receptacles, would not switch over power on the Homelink. After removing the HomeLink front panel, I used the provided lever to activate "test mode". Then, I could use the Homelink, but only at about 1800w continuous. I recently bought a Champion 4250w dual fuel generator, which has a 30-amp receptacle and should switch generator power to the HomeLink. Testing soon!

I live in a rural area with power outages often, especially during winter. The boxes my utility company uses come prefitted with interlock kits so that adding a power inlet is very simple since most people in my area have generators

Great presentation. Was leaning to transfer switch, now I am convinced, transfer switch.

I went with a Pulsar 6500 dual fuel and a 6 circuit transfer switch. Perfect fit for our size home. The install was straight forward.

Thanks! Good info, I'll share with less electrically minded friends who need to know the basics. I have used both and prefer the interlock even with my small generator. I have a small house and have changed over all my 220 appliances to gas which helped and I can almost run the entire house now. May re-use my transfer switch for a solar project but we will see.

Nice Video. I went with the 6 breaker Transfer switch powered by a remote start 4500 Watt inverter. Also plumbed it for Natural Gas as well as reg gas. Wanted to stay small so it wouldn't us too much fuel and inverter good for electronics and the RPMs drop when low load. This way I can run the basics, refrigerator, Furnace, lights, internet/ computers TV, Oven (gas oven but needs 110V to open gas valve).

THANK YOU so much for explaining this. This has helped me to decided that I need to go with an interlock kit verses a transfer switch. The interlock is just much more flexible. I don’t want to be locked into only being able to use a select amount of circuits.

Thanks for the clarity of this. I had no idea what to do

Good explanation. I hooked up an interlock with a line coming from an external 50A plug and a 12,500 watt on propane. I can choose the circuits I want to run and during hurricane season in FL, life with the wife without A/C is hell. I do have a small generator I loan out to others or I can use during cooler months in my house if needed. Costs - the most expensive cost was the cable from the external plug to my circuit panel at $105 and the plug at $43, which you would have to buy anyway. Other costs were the interlock switch for $38, and a 50Amp circuit breaker for $8.

Excellent explanation of the difference and who should install the transfer switch or the interlock. It clears up my confusion. Now I know what to buy. Great video!

I used a 10 circuit manual transfer switch for a few years and recently replaced it with the interlock kit. 8500 running watt generator. Much better set up for us.

thanks it gave me a better understanding, since I want to get my generator hooked up to my panel

Great video, I just did a video on my set-up. I opted for the InterLock for the exact reason you stated. Thanks for the detailed overview!

Answered a question I’ve wondered for several yrs. 👍🏼

I have to say that you really helped me figure out which one to buy. Thank you very much.

Very simple BUT very helpful. Two thumbs up! Thank you

Awesome. Clear cut answers. Thank you very much.

I like your content. I find it fascinating that anytime the subject of a backup home generator comes up it immediately defaults to dire warnings that you must use either a transfer switch or an interlock system. If you don't you are breaking all kind of laws and could kill your neighbors or linesmen. Let's get real for a sec. The interlock system wasn't even invented until around 2005. Transfer switches a few years before. For those of us who live in places like Florida where power outages are a way of life we have been using generator backups long before these two items were even invented. The whole issue centers around one simple thing. Shutting off your main breaker to the power company. Once it's off it will not come back on until you MANUALLY switch it back on. That's the whole thing in a nutshell. If you are going to use a backup generator for an emergency power outage shut off your main breaker first. So all the Internet hysteria and dire warnings about killing people, doing illegal things, and breaking the law is just that, Internet induced hysteria. If you are not capable of understanding that simple instruction then perhaps you should rethink a lot of other things in your life first before worrying about a power outage. Btw, I ran a 2400 sq foot home for two weeks at full power during a power outage using a suicide cord that I made and plugging it into the dryer outlet. No one died and no one got arrested for breaking the law. It's called an emergency power outage. During emergencies you do what you have to do to get by. As I said I like your content keep it up. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I recently experience my first 2 day power outage in Norther Virginia. I want to be prepared for next time. I learned a lot from your video. Thank you.

REALLY INFORMATIVE INFORMATION.WISH I HAD FOUND IT SOONER.THANK YOU.

Thanks for answering all my questions. Good video right to the point I like that.

Outstanding explanation, thanks for the time and energy on this video 🤙😎

Thank you Mr. Again I really appreciated this video with it information. Simple, easy and well explain.

Very helpful. I have a 4500w generator and will be using the transfer switch option. Of course, if you can get your hands on a whole house generator, I'd go with the interlock kit.

Thank you so much for your very, very helpful videos!! I may not be able to do all this stuff with my arthritic hands anymore at age 69, but it gives me an idea what I'm getting into that I might have to pay for. Keep up the good work!!!!

I use a transfer switch with my Champion 7500 watt generator to power almost my entire house. I don't have my stove/range, heat pump or cloths dried powered by it because of the high amp draw. I have back up window a/c units for summer use if the power is out during hot weather that the generator handles quite easily. Even though it isolates the generator from the line I always throw the main breaker to guarantee no back feed of the power lines.

Really great information in this video. Good job man!

Thank you for this and your other video, I just purchased my first generator which is actually an inverter and I'm looking at stepping into a full house possibility over time. The first generator can certainly run critical need issues and I have the ability parallel them if I buy a second small one. I also am smaller because they're easier to move around and if one breaks I still have something happening whereas if I have one large one and it won't start I'm dead in the water. It's the military two is one and one is none Theory.

Very good video. Now that I see this I think an interlock system would suit my purposes better.

Thanks for taking the time to share this information.

Great video. Concise and clear. Thank you

Great information. Thanks. I can now make a decision clearly.

This was very helpful!

I found this content very helpful, especially the price value

I use an interlock at my house in NJ. My home has natural gas. My 7000 watt generator can run everything but the central AC. During Sandy it was nice because I could turn on any light in any room with the interlock.

Thank you for this video. I am currently building my own place and this information helped me decide on the power failure route I am going to take. Seriously appreciate the time you took to make this video!

Thank you so much for all of your well develop videos. Some years ago, I saw your oldest generator related video. Due to my budget and other related factors, I was able to create a my own locking mechanism. The one I needed was out of stock but principally was about $120 dollars delivered. Personally, I re arranged my circuit box to properly accommodate the order for my 240v. panel. This is important because it created a method for me to select 6 low power circuits along with 2 higher power consumption circuits. My main restriction to give power to the house was my generator. Lucky, I got one that produces about 8k of constant power and up to 13500k for peak events. In my view, the best option is the manual locking option. This is due to the fact that are less things that could go wrong and it is cheaper and a much straight forward option that just about any DIY person can actually handle.

I’m almost ready to set up a generator inlet combined with a 48v battery & EG4 inverter(s) to a combiner box and run that back to a 125a breaker on an interlock in the main panel. Trying to capitalize on battery for main backup power and then use the generator to supplement grid power and also charge batteries with the EG4 chargeverter. Main idea is to use the generator to conserve gas / propane by only running the generator as needed until the batteries are charged. Thank you for this video. Lots more to think about.

Great description, thanks!

I’m going with a 50a interlock. I want to be able to choose what I want running. I’ll likely be getting the 7 or 8kw predator inverter. Very concise and informative video!

i like the simplicity of a transfer switch, but i think even with having to micromanage what circuits are on and off, the versatility of the interlock kit cant be beat for evolving power needs, especially depending what season it is when you lose power

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO, IT WAS VERY HELPFUL!

I think one of the biggest pros with an interlock is you have the flexibility to power any circuit. When I switch over to running on generator during an outage and before throwing the interlock I make sure to turn off the breakers for my electric water heater and electric dryer. These breakers are marked with red tape which makes them easy to identify. I have a 7,500 watt generator. For extended use I try and keep the wattage being drawn to no more than 6,000 watts. I have also installed a hard start kit installed on my central AC so it isn't a problem running it on a generator as once it has started it draws 2,200 watts.. My wife and I know that when on generator you have to selectively run no more than two high wattage appliances besides the refrigerator at the same time (a stove burner, the microwave, hair dryer, garage door opener, etc.) . If after a few days my wife gets tired of cool showers I have the option to switch off the AC and then run the water heater for forty five minutes. If in the worse case the generator would be overloaded it would just trip off line. For most people using a interlock and also by switching off all the 240v circuits would mean that they could run most everything else in the house while using a 5,000 watt or larger generator. With 12,000 watts then you can probably run most everything.

This is good stuff. I'm just at the start of this process but if I went down the wrong path it would be difficult to go back I think.

clear, detailed and very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you for your concise explanation of the differences in the two approaches. We recently purchased a largish generator, 10k watt output, and have been looking into our options. Our power consumption calculation is about 8000w, so we purchased something that would not have to run at peak all the time. This allows for home heating with our pellet stove, cold food storage in two fridge/freezers, hot and cold water and lighting. Also figure we can switch off a few things and fire up a computer/TV for some DVD watching while we are "in the dark". We really have appreciated the effort that folks have put into providing clear information about our available choices. Your video and information are top notch! May 2022 bring us all peace and prosperity.

interesting video. Thanks for making it. Since I haven't bought a generator yet I will use the money I save going with the home interlock kit and and apply that to my generator purchase to buy a bigger unit. This way I will be able to power my whole ( if my daughters aren't home ) house

This was the video I needed thank you!

Great and informative videos. I think I have learned something. Thanks so much. John

Thank you for the explanation.

Excellent video ! Very helpful with our decision.

GREAT stuff! THANK YOU!

To add to this great video and discussion. An outage is not the time to be figuring this out. Need to prove what will and wont run, how much fuel will you use and how much do you store? I am a retired electrician and finally got my stuff almost all squared away and tested recently here in New England. In my opinion we should shut the main once or twice a year and prove everything works. Might need to swap some breakers and balance the load. Do you have access to an amprobe? Run for 12-24 hours and know your fuel consumption, and learn what you can live without. I can survive for a while on a 2000 watt inverter generator. It can run on 3 gallons a day.

Thanks,just what i was looking for

Excellent and very informative. Thanks

Thank you! Great information

Very informative video. In our case we went with a interlock kit. Our range, clothes dryer and on demand water heater are propane. The only 220 items are our well pump and central air. We have a 13kw dual fuel portable genny that I can hook up to our in ground 250 gal propane tank in a few min. and plug into the side of the house. With our genny we can run the whole house without picking and choosing circuits.. Living in Florida it is important that AC operates.

Nice and clear. Thanks!

Good information! Thanks!

Thank you, very helpful!

Great job very helpful !

Its not for everyone but an Interlock is in my panel. I got lucky when I shopped for mine, It was around $15 for my panel. I saw others for different panels costing $75 and up. With my needs and requirement is was a no brainer.

Great info! Thanks!!

Very informative! Thanks!!!

Very helpful. Thank you.

Great video - very well put together! I would recommend measuring the power usage of the house and deciding based off of that rather than the raw amp ratings. I have a new house with 200 amp service, but with all the lights being LEDs, my regular energy usage is 1000 watts, very well within a small or medium generator to power everything. My peak continuous energy usage has been 9000 watts, but that is only with the dryer, AC, and oven on all at once - probably wouldn't try doing that when in an emergency situation. I prefer having everything connected and simply remembering not to turn on the dryer, oven, and AC all at once. Only thing I have to worry about is AC inrush, but I will be installing a soft start for that (which you provide an excellent video on too!).

Thank you. This is very helpful

Good video. Very informative. Some homes like mine have the main breaker outside and the breaker box inside. This doesn't allow me to have an interlock switch because the main is a single breaker box. So a licensed professional would not install an inlet box and breaker to my panel without the ability to put in a interlock switch. So a transfer box would be ideal. However my neighbor is an electrician and we installed a inlet and breaker. I just have to make sure i flip my main on and off before i do anything. I will eventually switch to a transfer box. JFYI

For me, the big deciding factor was that my breaker box, while it had some breakers in it (sewer pump, dryer, and a few more), it has 3 large (100A) breakers for "Upstairs", "Downstairs" and "Garage" which lead to three subpanels. If I wanted to be able to switch individual things from upstairs or downstairs, I'd have to rewire them all the way back to the main panel, otherwise I'm going to use large breakers on a transfer switch and still have to go and turn on and off individual circuits not to overload the generator. The interlock kit was much more straight forward.

Great videos....very informative!

I would have wanted to see the comparison between a larger, whole house transfer switch compared to the interlock. I went interlock, figuring I'm eventually going to add batteries and get an Enphase smart switch, so I am going cheap until then.

The flexibility of powering the whole panel is really nice if you are technically inclined and understand what you are doing. I have a transfer switch that feeds the whole panel. I shut off all the breakers and then flip a few key circuits back on. I color coded the essential circuits with small stickers to make the whole process very quick. But in an extended outage, maybe you really need to do some laundry or power some otherwise "non-essential" load for a few hours. But that flexibility requires understanding, in advance, how much power various appliances use and keeping a kind of rough wattage budget in your head as you flip things on and off. A transfer switch is better if you want the whole process to be simple and foolproof. Fire up the generator, push one switch and the food doesn't spoil, the internet comes back on, etc.

Thank you, very helpful

Great video. Thanks for the information. What was the model of interlock kit you are using?

I just did an interlock setup. It was $40 for power inlet box, $90 for the interlock kit, $20 for a double breaker, $28 for a mount plate for the power inlet box (so it would sit flat on the siding). I also needed a chunk of wire about 10' long for the power inlet box. I had that as a left over from a previous job. I have limited room where my panel is and there was no space to install a transfer switch.

Thank you so much. You’re explanation was as clear as can be. Personally, I’d prefer the transfer switch. Simply because in an emergency when I’m not available. My family can operate the transfer switch without the worry of dealing with the panel.

You asked how I installed my transfer switch. I have a 3 position switch- utility live- neutral (in between the two power sources)- and generator live. This way current is provided to the panel from one source only. Again this is very important so that my generator cannot feed into the grid where you might have downed power lines.

That was very helpful.

Could you talk about grounding the portable generator when using it for household and other situations?

My house originally came with a main panel & a sub panel in my house. The original main panel on the house had all the large wattage devices on it like the water well pump, stove, hot water heater, HVAC, & also last but not least a breaker for the sub panel too! The crazy thing about my main panel was that there was no main breaker on it! The original sub panel on my house had most of the other smaller amperage / wattage house circuits on it for lights, refrigerator, etc. Now of course I knew my medium size generator would not be able to power all of these big wattage appliances & I wasn't going to try it either. So some of these sub panel circuits would be the ones that I wanted to be able to power if an emergency happened (except for the well pump for water). To fix the dilemma I had, I moved the high importance (water supply) well pump from the main panel to the sub panel. Now I also installed a new sub panel on it that had a main breaker on it for the interlock switch (because my original sub panel didn't have a main breaker on it). BTW - I also don't plan on using the electric dryer & microwave (still on the sub panel) when using my 7000 watt generator. So what I plan on doing is to turn these breakers OFF to stop an accident "generator overloads" from happening. I also have wattage meters attached to the sub panel too so we can check wattage useage while running the generator. I have informed the wife about we can't use all house appliances during power outages as well... I actually asked electrical companies to give me estimates to fix my original panels so I could connect a generator & they gave me a lowest $15,000 bid to do this job. I said WTF & hell no. I did all this stuff myself for $200-$300...

I decided to purchase an emergency power generator after receiving two emails from my electric company, warning me that I live in "what they consider to be", a high risk area, for "public safety power shut-off's" in the event of extreme temperatures and dry conditions. They said that if they deem the chance of wild fires to be high, they may choose to do a "Public Safety Power Shut-off" and that these power shut-offs may last anywhere from several hours to several days! I chose the Westinghouse 12,500 starting watts and 9,500 running watts, dual fuel, 30/50 AMP generator and I purchased two 40 pound propane tanks that hold 9.2 gallons of propane in each tank, along with a pigtail auto switchover propane regulator and a 50 foot, 50 amp power cord attaching to a 50 amp power inlet box and an interlock device. Based on the wattage I predict I'll be using, I expect to use 1/2 gallon of propane per hour, so with 18.4 gallons of stored propane, I should have enough fuel to last approximately 36 hours. When the first tank runs dry at approximately 18 hours, the auto switch-over will automatically switch to the second tank and I'll just un-hook the first tank and take it to my propane refill place to refill it, bring it home and hook it back up. A Certified Electrician charged $800.00 to install the power inlet box, circuit breaker and interlock device, including parts and the permit and that costs $64.00 at my local County Court House. The permit fee was also to cover the cost of a County approved Licensed, Certified Electrician to come out and inspect, approve and sign off on the installation, which never happened. I would have "much preferred" a Generac whole home system (24,000 watts) but the cost with installation and paying the gas company, $3,500.00 to bring a gas line and meter onto my property, would have totaled somewhere between $13,000 to $15,000.00 as opposed to the approximately $2,300.00 that I spent, in total. I also purchased a couple of portable emergency air conditioners at Loews and that cost approximately $600.00. UPDATE: Just a couple months after installing the backup power generator, PGE did do a "Public Safety Power shut off". We were on our generator backup power for 25 hours. The backup power generator performed flawlessly the entire time! Money well spent! We now have peace of mind.

I have looked at both options and I tend to favor the interlock kit. I will add there is one additional option. You can have installed a generator connector that connects to the main power coming in. When you connect your generator and turn on the power it senses the power and disco's it from the main lines.