Connecting a Portable Generator Safely in Cumming

Using a portable generator during a Forsyth County outage: what Sawnee EMC requires

Storms that knock out power around Cumming bring out portable generators, and with them one of the most dangerous shortcuts in home electrical work: backfeeding the house through an outlet. Sawnee EMC is direct about it. Its portable generator page says not to plug the generator into a wall outlet, and its safety center says that if a generator is wired into the house, a transfer switch is required to prevent electricity from feeding back onto the service line, where it can injure the workers restoring power.

There are two safe ways to use a portable generator. You can plug individual appliances into the generator with heavy-duty, outdoor-rated cords, or you can have a transfer switch installed so the generator feeds selected house circuits while the house is isolated from the utility.

Option one: cords to individual appliances

Sawnee's guidance is to plug individual appliances into the generator using heavy-duty, outdoor-rated cords with a wire gauge adequate for the appliance load, and to follow the generator manufacturer's instructions for safe operation. This needs no electrical work and no permit, and it suits refrigerators, freezers, lamps and phone chargers.

It does not work for equipment that is hard-wired, such as a well pump, a furnace blower and its controls, or room lighting. For those, Sawnee says there are important steps that require the utmost care to avoid electrocution, which brings in the second option.

Option two: a manual transfer switch

If you need to power permanently wired equipment, Sawnee says to have a qualified electrician install a manual transfer switch. The switch lets you move selected loads from the utility to the generator. Sawnee says the switch should be certified by UL or another independent test lab for this application and mounted within an electrical enclosure. When properly installed, the switch isolates the circuits supplied by the generator from those supplied by the utility, which prevents energizing both systems at once and reduces the risk of electrocution from wires presumed to be dead.

Sawnee's interconnection procedures add detail on what counts as an acceptable switch for backup power: open-transition, break-before-make switching, using a UL 98 double-throw safety switch, a UL 1008 transfer switch, a trapped key interlock or a UL 3008 isolation switch, inspected and approved by the authority having jurisdiction. Installing a switch adds a circuit to the panel, so it needs a permit from Forsyth County, or from the City of Cumming inside city limits.

Before the next storm

Decide which circuits matter most: a well pump, the furnace blower, the refrigerator, a few lights. That list sets the switch size and the inlet location. If you are thinking about a permanent unit instead, the standby generator guide covers it. The permit steps are in the County and City guides.

Keep the generator outdoors and follow the manufacturer's instructions, as Sawnee advises, and keep the transfer switch permit and inspection record with your house documents. When you are ready, the form on this page lets independent local electricians contact you about a transfer switch.