17 of 18 people found the following review helpful. Product Review: This Reliance Power Inlet Box is excellent quality. It has easily removable knockouts on the back and sides; ½” or 3/4″. Since it was to be mounted on a cinder-block wall, I used PVC conduit from the back of the box through the wall, and ran 10/3 (w/ground) from the Inlet Box to a 30-amp 240 volt receptacle on the home’s interior. See Images.) Three Tapcon 3/16″ x 1 3/4″ masonry screws securely attach the box to a cinder block wall. Once mounted, there is a 1/8″ air gap between the back of the box and the wall; that air gap allows the unit to dry-out after rain. The gap also allows the cover assembly to be easily slipped over the box frame and be secured with the single stainless steel screw shown in the photo. Do NOT caulk where the box meets the wall or the cover won’t be removable. DO caulk where the wire or conduit goes through the wall (if that’s how it’s wired), to prevent insect and water infiltration. The unit’s screw-down wiring connectors tightly hold 10-gage (or 8-gage) wires. The integral hinged receptacle door acts as a rain guard when the receptacle is in use, and when it isn’t, seals the inside from weather, bugs, and dirt. Excellent product! Product Use: Consumers typically use portable generators to power their homes in one of several ways. 1. The least expensive and most common method is to simply run long extension cords through open windows or doors directly to where power is needed inside the home. 2. The best (and costliest) approach is to connect the generator’s output power to a “transfer switch”; a device that switches electrical circuits between main power (i.e., from a utility company) and a backup generator. These switches can be automatic, monitoring incoming power from the utility and switching to a backup when the utility power goes out, or manual which requires you to physically make the changeover. Whole-house permanently installed (e.g., natural gas) generators utilize automatic switches, while portable gasoline-powered generators commonly employ a manual cut-over switch. This Power Cord Inlet Box is often used with a manual transfer switch. 3. You could also use a Power Mechanical Interlock; search Amazon on that term. 4. An intermediate approach avoids running cords through windows or doors and the high cost of installing a transfer switch. It requires one or more 110v and/or 240v Power Inlet Boxes mounted on the dwelling’s exterior, directly wired through the wall to receptacles in the dwelling’s interior, with no connection to house wiring. From those interior (generator-powered) receptacles, extension cords go where the power is needed. I chose the intermediate approach. During a power outage, our generator is wheeled into place and three cords are run from the generator to the house, as follows. Takes under 10 minutes to set up. - A 30-Amp L14-30 240v Generator Power Cord connects to a Reliance Controls PB30 L14-30 30 Amp Generator Power Cord Inlet Box (product being reviewed) - Two 20-amp (12-gage) 120v cords connect to Leviton 5278-CWP 120v Power Inlet Receptacles - A grounding cord is connected. 6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. My only complaint of this box is you can’t feed it with conduit from the top as the way the cover comes off both the front and top come off as one piece. You HAVE to do your wire entries either from the side or bottom. This is not a deal killer but the installs look much better with the outlet below the panels rather than off to the side. |
Excellent product
The industy standard for generato inlets