Today i want to talk to you about a transfer switch, what it is, how it's wired and how it works. So, let's get into it all right. So this is my system here in one of my warehouses. This is a backup system.

The battery goes in here. I took the system that i had built and i'm replacing it with a new one. That's going to be a future video, but for right now i want to talk to you about this one. This is a transfer switch right, and this is a thing that i've mentioned before in other videos, but i've never really explained in detail what it is, how it's wired and why you should have them, but i have mentioned that every building should have one of these.

I don't know why these are not standard, but it's a very good idea to have it. Every house and every commercial building should have one of these, because this is the thing that allows you to when the power goes out, then this is the plug that you can supply power into the building, so you can temporarily power it in an emergency right. So that's what this is. This is, i guess, it's a sub panel.

This is the main panel here and uh. Yours might look a little bit different. This is a commercial three-phase panel. That's why there's three lines in there right three legs uh and then then the white one, which is the neutral right for all three of those legs um.

So yours might be if you're in residential, then you might have only two and sometimes in commercial. You only have split face and that's only three wires, two faces uh or two hot wires, and then one neutral. So here is how it works. The the electricity comes in through those thick wires right and then uh, the neutrals of all the circuits in your building or in your house, gets connected to that bus bar there, all the other ones.

They go into these uh three lines and every third um circuit breaker is connected to the same right, so the first circuit breaker is connected to that one. The second is connected to the second one. The third one is connected to the third and then the fourth one. Then it goes back to to the first one right and they just go like that.

They, and so what happens, is that the other leg comes from your circuits through that conduit there, and then it goes right into the uh circuit breaker right. So if you're running just a regular circuit with lights or whatever, then you might want to run like a 10 amp breaker or a 15 amp breaker or a 20 amp breaker right. I think that this is not 15 and 20. That's what they are.

I think i only have all 20s, those are the smallest ones and then they go 30s and then 40s uh and you can get up to 50s right. Um is there's a 50. No that's a 20.. So, according to whatever load, is on the circuit.

Then that would determine the size of the wire and then the size of the circuit breaker right. So you wan na be above a little bit above of what your thing is going to be, but just not too big right that the cable will melt in case of a short right. So those circuits will come in there and then go to that circuit. Breaker and that cigarette connects it to one of those three legs, so the subpanel this uh transfer switch.

What it does is that it goes in there and instead of having that circuit, come in and connect to the thing now that is kind of hijacking it. It takes that circuit and then it connects it with these little wire nuts right and so now that cable, that comes from your receptacles or your lights or your circuits. Instead of going straight into the here, they go into those cables, and then it goes through. That thing, and then it goes into one of these, so this one only has six circuits and you have to choose the six circuits.

This panel has more than six right. It's got a bunch of them there about 20.. Then you have to choose the six circuits that you want to be able to power in an emergency situation right through this uh system here through this transfer switch and then those six circuits. Basically you hijack them.

It goes in here and then it goes through. This switch, this is a two-way switch. You could only be connected either through here or to that right, and so this is a uh when it's online, it's just bypassing it that that that electricity uh comes here and then it goes through here and then it goes right back into that circuit and then It goes out right now, but whenever you put it on generator right, so this is off it's not connected to anything that circuit right there, one of the six circuits off or you put in generator, all of a sudden that connects it to one of the legs In here and three of these circuits are connected to one of the legs and then three other circuits are connected to another one of the legs. This is kind of me.

It is made for a split face, um setup right, but you can use it on a on a three-phase setup, just like this. So what you have to do is just ignore the other face right and connect make sure that the loads that you're putting in here you know go into the same one right. So basically, all the six circuits have to be on two of the three legs that are in here right and then, when you put it on generator, then you have to feed it, and this is just uh. You know just a socket uh that is kind of backwards.

That's why you know this would be like at the end of an extension cord, but it's mounted in here. So then this extension cord is kind of backwards. It's got this thing you plug this in here and then the other. What comes out of here has to go into either a generator right.

Just a regular um, typical, traditional gas generator could be a big one. It could be a small one. It has to be enough to support you know the loads in here that you're putting in here uh and by the way these are rated at 15 amps, and then these are rated at 20 amps right, so um yeah. You have to make sure that your circuits are accordingly right, their size.

According to this thing, in here um this r, i guess the generator would have to be split phase because there's two facing here, but not necessarily, you could also tie in the two faces. The two hot wires and then just the neutral and then like in this case - that's what i'm doing here. This is a inverter that will convert dc power and stored in the battery here, and then it converts it to ac and then from here it's going to go in here right, but this is only one uh one single face right and it's and it's 110, and So it's half of a split face, so you would have to connect the two hot wires and that's okay, because you're only doing it here whenever uh that happens, it's only. It only works that way when it's in gen when it's in line, then it goes back to the original setup here to whichever leg it's attached in here right.

So that's what it does it kind of gets in between and your circuits instead of coming in here and connecting straight into your um breakers. Then they have to go to this before right. They go in there and then from there. They go here.

So that gives you the ability to disconnect and i'll give you an example: where's the lights there we go. This is the one circuit that connects the lights right and so right now the lights are connected to one of these pins in here. So that's why they're off, because there's no power going in there. So if i wanted to power the lights, i would have to electrify two of these pins right and then it'll get the power from here and it'll power.

The lights right - but this is disconnected now from here, so let's turn it back on there we go. So this is a very simple device. It's just a little sub panel that goes in between your circuits and this panel right and it should be in every home, but it is not so you have to pay an electrician to install this because whoever works on this has to be certified right by. I.

Don't know the authorities the state or whatever, and so it wouldn't cost you too much. I think an electrician would charge you. This would take a competent electrician, probably two three hours, maybe to install so it would cost you like two 300 bucks. Probably i don't know what the rates are going, but anything above that would probably be too much money.

I don't know, maybe electricians make way more money than that or not, but it shouldn't be more than 500 bucks. I think the actual uh hardware costs about 300 or 500 there's different versions. I have bigger ones. The other uh warehouse that i have here.

I ended up putting a bigger one with more circuits uh. Some are even smaller, sometimes they're, even just have like one uh switch and then one socket here, so they don't have a bunch of circuits uh, but they all kind of work the same way right, and so this is what you would have to install in your Home, if you want to be able to power, your house uh off of a different uh source right other than the grid, and this basically what it does. This is the safety part. There is no way to connect this source of power that you connect here and to the grid right and your circuits are either one or the other when they're up they're connected to this source of energy that you connect in here and then, when they're down they're Connected to the grid, but at no point can can both of them be connected together.

That's what the this switch here. Uh is capable of doing right, so it's one or the other one, never the same, and that's a safety feature so that you don't back feed into the grid uh because then that's dangerous. A lot of people say because the line, but the in reality is because it would kill most likely. It would kill your equipment if you have something connected in here and somehow it backfed into the grid, even if the grid is not electrified.

If the grid is electrified, it's going to fry your thing, because they're going to be out of sync, but if the grid is not electrified, then it's going to overload your equipment right, your equipment. This is a 3000 watt, inverter uh. What's on the other side of those three faces, it's more buildings with more loads, and it would add more than 3 000, and so that load would just overload this and then kill it and also would um exceed the maximum uh. Well, that any of these little circuit breakers would handle, and so there we go, that's what would happen, but it's impossible to do it.

That's why these exist and that's why you have to install this, and this is the correct way to install an alternate source, an emergency source into your building or your home, uh and so yeah. If you're gon na get into this, i would suggest you buy one of these and you hire an electrician and you have it come in there and install it for you and then now you can power your home off of a generator or a set of batteries. Uh and uh, you know, and an inverter, basically right so so there you go. That's just a quick rundown video.

Hopefully it wasn't. I didn't make it much more hard to understand than it actually is. Uh yeah. If you have any questions, uh comments put them in the description.

Thank you for watching this video we'll see you guys on the next one bye, oh by the way before i go uh these the next uh battery uh project that i'm doing is using these little 20 cell batteries and this mega dongle thing, which is just a Big power distribution - you know thing so you'll be able to connect all of those batteries in there, but here's the cool thing that i'm finding out that it's a lot easier to handle these batteries. If you tape them together like this in fours and that way you go in there and then you put the next block in here and the next block in there and the monks and so they'll uh, they have a flat spot in the bottom. So you put that on the bottom and then they don't uh, they won't slide and you'll be able to connect them. This goes in here.

I'm gon na put all that in there uh so stay tuned for that video you're interested in how to install the easy battery systems for backup and then, of course, i'll show you all the other stuff uh the charger, the inverter. And then you know the the thing that we just talked about today, all right stay tuned for that project in the next couple days. Thank you for watching bye.