don't forget to install a cutoff unit on the generator or house service box so it doesn't backfeed into the electric lines.
the electric company guys kind of frown on getting "bit" when working on the lines to restore power.
A Service Entrance transfer switch disconnects the house from the incoming utility. You can also accomplish this if you put a fused disconnect in the line coming from the utility pole to the breaker box in the house. You just have to remember to manually open the disconnect every time you run the generator. The Service Entrance transfer switch does this automatically.
A "manual" switch sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Do a legit install. Killing someone or yourself is not worth what you might save by a hillbilly installation.
I'm retiring in 20 days from the power company after 44 1/2 years. I'm very thankful to have been taught very early on as a young lineman to watch out for the Ding Dongs with rigged up generators. After the big ice storm right before Christmas in Tulsa, OK in 2007, one of said Ding Dongs dumbassed his disconnect procedure on his huge portable generator when we got the power to his street back on. He forgot to disconnect his generator before he flipped his main breaker back on. He was back feeding the panel with another breaker below the main. It went KABOOMYOW right in hs face, blew up his panel, backfed onto the energized power lines and burnt all of the backlot lines that fed his house and 9 others. After a week of being without power, they had to be out another night because we had to quit in time to drive back to NW Arkansas where our hotel rooms were. One of the lineman came over the radio and said "At least we will be able to get a truck to the pole tomorrow. His neighbors are gonna burn his house down tonight and we can back the bucket truck across the slab and reach the pole!"
Thank you to the OP, who intends to do it right!
