Whole home back up - a simple approach

[GDN]

Let's just say it is pretty dang cool to see your house powered by your truck.

I got hooked up today. Sitting in a dark garage, hit the Pro Power button and lights immediately came on. Had some fun testing different scenarios, but I was easily able to turn on every light in the house and the pool pump was on. I don't know if the fridge/freezer was on. It was a minimal hit to have the gas house heater come on (the blower is all that needs power).

Tomorrow I'm going to isolate each breaker and check the fridges to see eactly how much power each draws. Similar to others, out side of the 5 ton AC, the clothes dryer and the oven I can likely run the rest of the house at once all from the 30 amp plug.

I can even run the dryer and oven individually, but will likely need to keep most everything else shut off during that time.

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[Maquis]

I've read through many threads and approaches to this. I've seen a couple of videos early on with how much can be powered from the truck, but the question is, can you or should you expect 30 amp continuous use from the truck? Its rated at 30, we use 30 amp rated cables, but should we only expect or push it to the 80% of that value for continuous use?

I’m not going to worry about it. My backed up loads consist of refrigerators, a freezer, kitchen countertop, home network, gas furnace, and some lights. If everything was running at the same time, it would probably exceed 30A, but that’s almost impossible. And if it happens, the truck will shut it off.

Just like if everything in my house was running, I’d exceed the capacity of my 200A service, but that’s never happened in 25 years.