Flushed with success from last night's shopping excursion, we went out again tonight. We hit Lowe's first, and found zilch there for deals. But the Home Depot across the street was doing a sidewalk sale, 80% off clearance items.

And what did I see lying on a pallet but a 240V 60A manual tranasfer switch from GE.

The electrical code now requires a transfer switch if you hook a generator to your panel. This is for the safety of the utility workers--the step down transformer can feed high voltage back onto the power lines and electrocute the linemen (linepersons?!?) working on them. So it's a really smart thing to have if you plan on a generator. Which I do. And even if I don't buy one immediately, I planned on putting in the transfer switch so I had a convenient option later on.

This is a $500 item as far as I can tell from looking around. It's plain jane, and has no meters or indicator lights--it's just a 3PDT switch rated for 60A, with safety interlocks that keep you from opening the case while the contacts are closed (and from closing the contacts while the case is open).

The punchline: I paid less than $30.

a single comment

wowah, looks like something out of Jurassic park!

Great buy there, for sure :-)

What means of generation were you thinking of employing.. just for backups, incase of the mains going down?

posted by moose @ 8/12/2002 4:06 PM CST