Electricians or Reasonable Facsimiles in the House?

[Amarok]

As winter approaches and power outages keep happening, I want to have backup power for my furnace.
The furnace is less than a year old and the fan draws <500 watts. When it was installed and the electricity hooked up, they made the cord about 20 feet longer than needed.

Is there any reason I can't splice a male and a female plug into that cord so I can quickly switch over to backup in an outage?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Chefdave]

You can splice, but would recommend this or similar.

 

[Chefdave]

As winter approaches and power outages keep happening, I want to have backup power for my furnace.
The furnace is less than a year old and the fan draws <500 watts. When it was installed and the electricity hooked up, they made the cord about 20 feet longer than needed.

Is there any reason I can't splice a male and a female plug into that cord so I can quickly switch over to backup in an outage?

Thanks for any help.

Im assuming the fan is 120v.?

 

[doober]

I have a "standby circuit breaker" switch on my main panel and like it, but this video (and others like it on youtube) might give you some other simpler ideas/approaches to just power your furnace during an outage -

How To Power A Gas Furnace In A Power Outage | Simple Power Cord Install!

 

[rkymtnman]

yep, @Chefdave is correct. make sure you have some type of disconnect or you'll back feed into the grid and possibly fry anybody working on the lines.

 

[Amarok]

I have a "standby circuit breaker" switch on my main panel and like it, but this video (and others like it on youtube) might give you some other simpler ideas/approaches to just power your furnace during an outage -

How To Power A Gas Furnace In A Power Outage | Simple Power Cord Install!

Only part way through the vid, but this appears to be exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

 

[rkymtnman]

Only part way through the vid, but this appears to be exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

I guess I spoke somewhat incorrectly. if the furnace is completely isolated to the generator, there should be no back feed issue.

how long are you outages normally for? we seem like we lose power here more in the summer than the winter for some reason.

 

[Amarok]

Winter usually isn't bad for power outages, but usual isn't usual anymore. There is an El Nino currently ramping up that could be the worst in recorded history(Source: any search engine). El Nino usually just means a mild winter here, but who knows anymore?


It's not so much I am super worried about winter outages, but the furnace is currently the only vital thing I can't power so it seems like something to be addressed.

I'm now up to over 7kwh of backup storage, so I can run everything vital for at least a few days. The furnace is about the only thing that is hardwired, and it's buggin' me.

 

[rkymtnman]

Winter usually isn't bad for power outages, but usual isn't usual anymore. There is an El Nino currently ramping up that could be the worst in recorded history(Source: any search engine). El Nino usually just means a mild winter here, but who knows anymore?


It's not so much I am super worried about winter outages, but the furnace is currently the only vital thing I can't power so it seems like something to be addressed.

I'm now up to over 7kwh of backup storage, so I can run everything vital for at least a few days. The furnace is about the only thing that is hardwired, and it's buggin' me.

i'm eventually gonna have a sparky mount a sub panel for my generator. would love to be able to power the well pump, the fridge/deep freeze and the blower on the fireplace insert.

but I get your point, it's a nice fuzzy feeling to be self-sufficient.