NW-Bound
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- Joined
- Jul 3, 2008
- Messages
- 35,712
You can get the same function with hot+neutral switching using a DPDT 20A toggle switch for $6 at Home Depot. This is easily mounted by drilling a hole in a cover plate. Home Depot does not sell a pushbutton circuit breaker, but it should be available from an industrial supplier.
About the generator GFCI, if you do not connect the ground wire in the cord going from the genny to the furnace, but ground the genny case separately, whether the genny GFCI trips or not depends on where that ground connection is made.
If a ground wire terminal is directly bolted onto the genny case, then it obviously does not go through the GFCI.
PS. If you switch the neutral, so that the neutral of the genny and the neutral of the house wiring are never connected, then the ground wire of the genny can stay connected in the extension cord, which is then connected to the ground of the house wiring. The genny will get grounded via the extension cord, and its GFCI stays functional.
No modification is needed in the genny or in the extension cord, or anywhere else. No safety is compromised. This is the preferred wiring scheme.
About the generator GFCI, if you do not connect the ground wire in the cord going from the genny to the furnace, but ground the genny case separately, whether the genny GFCI trips or not depends on where that ground connection is made.
If a ground wire terminal is directly bolted onto the genny case, then it obviously does not go through the GFCI.
PS. If you switch the neutral, so that the neutral of the genny and the neutral of the house wiring are never connected, then the ground wire of the genny can stay connected in the extension cord, which is then connected to the ground of the house wiring. The genny will get grounded via the extension cord, and its GFCI stays functional.
No modification is needed in the genny or in the extension cord, or anywhere else. No safety is compromised. This is the preferred wiring scheme.
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