How to Connect a Power Station to Your House Safely

You can connect a power station to your house in two safe ways: plug your appliances into it with extension cords, which needs no electrician, or have a licensed electrician install a power inlet with a transfer switch, an interlock or the station maker's own panel so it can feed selected circuits. Never plug a station into a wall or dryer outlet to backfeed the house. Cords cover most short outages. Hard-wired loads such as a furnace blower or well pump need the installed route and a station with a matching output.

Why can't you plug a power station into a wall outlet?

Never connect a power station or generator to a wall outlet, dryer outlet or panel without a transfer switch or interlock installed by a licensed electrician. The classic shortcut is a double-male “suicide cord” plugged into a dryer or wall receptacle. With the main breaker on, power flows back out through your meter and the utility transformer, which steps it up to thousands of volts on lines that repair crews think are dead. Utilities and Generac warn it can electrocute line workers; it can also start a fire when grid power comes back, and the cord's unplugged end has live prongs. There is no safe version of it, with or without the main breaker off.

How far can extension cords take you?

Further than most people expect. A station indoors with cords to the fridge, the router, a couple of lamps and phone chargers covers what most short outages need, with no wiring work and no permit. Use cords rated for the load, run them where nobody trips on them, and don't cover them with rugs. The limits are hard-wired loads, which have no plug, and 240 V appliances, which a standard outlet can't supply. For what a station runs this way, see the home backup picks.

What does a transfer switch with a power inlet do?

An electrician mounts a weatherproof inlet box on the outside wall and wires it to a small manual transfer switch next to your main panel. In an outage you run one cord from the station to the inlet and flip the circuits you chose, typically the furnace, fridge, well pump and some lights, from utility to backup. The switch makes it impossible for those circuits to be connected to the utility and the station at once, which is what US electrical code requires of transfer equipment; the 2020 NEC requires it to be listed, so check the edition your state has adopted.

The inlet and cord have to match the station. Home inlets normally take a 120/240 V L14-30 plug or a 120 V L5-30. The plug types, and why a TT-30 RV outlet isn't an L14-30, are covered in TT-30 vs L14-30 vs 14-50.

What is an interlock kit?

An interlock is a sliding plate on your main panel. The inlet feeds a dedicated breaker, and the plate physically stops that breaker and the main breaker from being on together. It lets you power any circuit in the panel, which is flexible but also makes it easy to switch on more than the station can supply; you manage the load by hand. Whether a listed interlock is accepted is up to your local inspector, so this is a choice to make with the electrician.

Do power station makers sell their own home panels?

Yes, for their large home-backup units. In our catalog, the Anker SOLIX F3800 Plus works with the Anker Home Power Panel and the Jackery Explorer 5000 Plus works with the Jackery 60A Smart Transfer Switch. These switch the chosen circuits over automatically and are set up through the maker's app. Both makers require installation by a licensed electrician, as they do for any panel or transfer-switch wiring.

What else does the electrician set up?

Neutral-ground bonding. A source feeding a house through a transfer switch has to have its neutral bonded or floating to match the switch. Many power stations use a floating ground; Anker says so of its stations and sells a ground-neutral plug for devices that expect a bond. Matching it to your switch is part of why the installation needs an electrician.