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I have a cord I aquired somewhere along the way, it is a 30 amp 120/240 twistloc to 30 feet of 10/4 to a nice woodhead neoprene twin duplex box which has a single duplex split wired so each 120 outlet is on a separate phase AND has a 20 amp 240 single outlet too. Works great for electric hot water heater on the 240 sied and refrigerator on one 120 as well as other loads on the other 120....I will try to see if it has any ID on it as to make or branding....But one could easily be made up too.YMMV

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That sounds pretty slick.  My water heater is hard wired to my panel, but it would work for my dryer though.






Anyone ever hear of a company called Milspec Direct?  (Stop rolling your eyes, I know you are!!!)  I was looking at this.  Price and features seem right.

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by using the 240v 30amp set up your splitting the load on both phases of your generator thus extending the life of your generator. (i am an electrical contractor in NJ)   But that being said unless your using your generator like a contractor would you ll never burn it out using just the 120v outlets.    either way you cant go wrong.  you should do a transfer switch sub panel at your house  a job like that should be about 1300-1500 labor and materials

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I have a 6,000w/7,500w generator.  It has five receptacles total: two 120v duplex, and a 240v L14-30 twistlock.  The generator has three breakers - 1 for the 240v, and 1 for each 120v duplex.  I won't be attaching it to the house via a transfer switch or interlock very soon, so I need a way to power my 120v devices inside the house.  I don't intend to run any of my 240v until the generator is professionally wired to the house.  

I have no desire to backfeed with a suicide cord, so please do not suggest it.  

I believe my two basic choices are:
Run off the 120v receptacles using one or more 12/3 extension cords like this
or
Run off the 240v twistlock receptacle with a 10/3 cord like this and then use the 12/3 cords above.

Pros/cons of each setup?  Are they functionally the same?  

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Functionally they are the same, I have a 240 twist lock that I run into the house at the central point, then run extensions from there. The benefit is that I don't have a mess of cords running threw the windows, just one.

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So if your genny has a 120V/240V selector, you set it on 240V? Then you plug your 120V extensions into it?

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Not sure with yours. Mine has a 240v twist lock connector which is really two legs of 120v and a common ground (much like a home circuit). I have no adjustments or switches that I can set.

ETA, looks something like this:
http://www.arkansas-ope.com/CP_62953.jpg

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Does the second one allow you to run four 120V cords from it with the genny switch set to 240V? Or do you select 120V? Dumb question, I know.

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Not sure with yours. Mine has a 240v twist lock connector which is really two legs of 120v and a common ground (much like a home circuit). I have no adjustments or switches that I can set.

ETA, looks something like this:
http://www.arkansas-ope.com/CP_62953.jpg

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There are 2 winding on the genny. Both 120v. and separate. If he was using a 240 volt appliance the load would be equally split on both sides, but since he is using 120 volt appliances it will not be depending on what he plugs into each 120 volt side.

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electrically there is one winding, center tapped.  the L1 and L2 come from the ends of the winding, and the N from the center tap.  this is how split-phase power is sourced.  on the circuit diagram in your manual, it may show two windings but they are joined in the middle to create the center tap neutral.   L1 and L2 are, with relation to each other, 180 degrees out of phase.  from L1 to L2 gives you 240Vac, and from either L1 or L2 to Neutral gives you 120Vac.  the primary advantage of split-phase power sourcing is that it permits the neutral conductor to be the same wire gauge as L1 and L2.  this is due to the fact that because with L1 and L2 180 degrees out of phase,  the N carries the *difference* in L1 and L2 currents –– not the *sum* of L1 and L2 currents.   while not a big advantage in portable generator applications, use of split-phase power in residential service drop applications saves a lot of copper and/or aluminum in the physical plant.

ar-jedi

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I made my own cord. Purchased everything at Lowe's. Here is a cut and paste from a past post I made.



"So I am sticking with the extension cord plan. Lowe's has SJOOW 10/4 cable for $2.29 a foot or $114 for 50 foot. This is a little more then ebay but not much after shipping. I spent $221 last night for all the parts which include 2 20 amp GFCI's, cable, weather proof gang box, 30AMP 4 prong plug, gang box hole plugs, cable clamp for gang box and weather proof cover for gang box. I have some wire connectors and splicing wire already. Price also includes a regular wall socket, male / female cord ends to rework my heater so I can plug it in, cord keeper and sales tax. I found that the gang box is not deep enough once I shoved the cable in due to the extra room that the GFCI's require and that the 10 AWG wire dose not fit into the GFCI's so I need to add a box extension and will have to use 12 AWG wire to wire between the cable and plugs which in reality is only 2 extra lines on the hot side as the ground and neutral wires would have to be spliced anyway."



Once I got the cord made I drilled a 2 1/2"? hole in the side of my house so I could pass the plug through the wall and outside to the generator. I used PVC pipe in the hole and sealed around the pipe on the inside and outside. When not in use I pack the PVC pipe with insulation and install end caps to keep the weather and bugs out. When I need to use the generator I just pop off the caps, pull out the insulation, run the plug through the pipe and then repack some insulation around the cord to keep out drafts. My cord comes in in my laundry / utility room so the 4 plug box ends about at my heater which I have set up on a standard wall plug. I can unplug the heater from the house socket and then plug it into the generator cord socket. From this location its a short extension cord into the kitchen to plug in the fridge and or freezer. Another extension cord into the living room for tv, internet or what ever. If I need to I can plug in a window AC unit to cool a room or two.



It would be nice to flip a switch and have power to the hole house should I need it or to have the central AC if needed but for the cost of purchasing and installing a transfer switch plus some up grades to my old house to make it compatible and up to new codes it just wasn't worth it on the off chance that I might have to use the generator. Our longest power lose has been about 6 hours once, the rest have been less then an hour. I have oil lamps and a kerosene heater at my disposal so a short term outage is nothing. As for the cost of the cord I would have had to have about 100 foot of wire to go from the house breaker box to where I can secure the generator so a 50 foot cord was cheap.

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Yes I agree. What you said is more accurate.

My point was just that he can't use the power limits of then 240 v and the power limits of the 120 v  at the same time and that using the 240 v plug does not balance the load between the 2 halves. The load on the 2 halves can be very different if the loads are very different that are plugged into 2 haves of the 120 v circuits.

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How many 120v female ends are ideal at the end of a 240v cord?  I've seen 2, 3, and 4.  It would seem that 3 (or any odd number) would be more likely to be unbalanced, but I'm not 100% clear on the mechanics of all this.

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It all depends on what you plug into them.  Each thing you plug in will draw a certain amount of power ( watts ). The objective is to make each side balances to about the same. Doesn't have to be exactly the same, just as close as you can get.

Does your generator have a load meter? If it does, you can plug and unplug to balance the load on both sides using the meter.

If not, you can buy one of those meters ( KIll-a-watt meter) to figure it out