Way of topic, but maybe someone can help

[Bob & Bettina Groh]

Pat,

Ouch.  From the volume of replies (most if not all of them incorrect in
some extent), you had better contact an acknowledgeable electrician or
an electrical engineer who does power engineering.  You do have to watch
the grounding very carefully.  You will need to (as you implied) have a
transfer switch which the power company will approve.  Paralleling wires
does increase the capacity in direct ratio to the number of conductors -
it is done all the time - but you do have to be careful to keep each
conductor close to the same length.  You can NOT delete the grounding
wire and simply ground each end.  You can NOT get 110 VAC from a 220 V
generator without using a transformer (could use a resistor but assume
that is unpalatable) - the 110 V in your house (assuming you have 220 V
service) is actually one side of a center tapped transformer - you get
110 V from each end to the center tap (which is neutral) or, if you tie
from end to end you get 220 V.

Back to the paralleling - the 3 #12's in parallel would just about do
the job without a lot of excess capacity.

I don't know what you're going to do about the lack of 110 V but if that
is not a problem (i.e. you have an old 220 V CT pole pig) then could run
220V through 2 pairs of #12 with the 3rd pair for a ground and put the
tranformer at the other end.

You have a number of things to consider but do be careful.

73
Bob Groh, WA2CKY

Patrick Tocornal wrote:
>
> I do not know if this is the proper forum for the following question, if it
> is not, please try to direct me to the proper place.
>
>                                                                          I
> have recently acquired a military surplus 12KW 220 single phase generator,
> and would like to use it as a back-up for my farm house.
>
> The question is this, I do have two 3 wire conductors gauge #12 already
> underground to the generator location, if I parallel the 2 conductors thus
> having 3 number 12 wires for each leg how many amps can I carry?
>
> The ground would be provided by appropriate ground rods at both ends, the
> generator and the 220 volt 60 amp fuse panel, the distance is about 100
> feet..
>
> Of course an appropriate transfer switch will be provided.
>
> Would the pair of 3 number 12 wires handle the load?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Pat Tocornal
>
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