Queens House Rewiring installs generator transfer switches so a backup generator can power your home safely and legally during an outage. A transfer switch is the essential piece of any backup setup, because it isolates the home from the utility grid before the generator feeds the circuits, which protects your equipment and, critically, prevents deadly backfeed onto utility lines. We install manual and automatic transfer switches, wire the critical-load circuits you want backed up, and size the setup to your generator, all as a NYC-licensed master electrician under permit and NYC DOB inspection. Backfeeding a generator through an outlet is dangerous and illegal, and a proper transfer switch is the right way to do it.
A transfer switch physically disconnects the home from the utility before the generator supplies power, which does two vital things. It protects the generator and your appliances from utility power returning unexpectedly, and it prevents backfeed, where generator power flows back onto the utility lines and can electrocute a lineworker. Running a generator through a plugged-in cord to an outlet does neither and is both dangerous and illegal. The transfer switch is what makes backup power safe and code-compliant.
A manual transfer switch lets you select which of a set of critical circuits the generator powers when you start it by hand, and it is a cost-effective fit for portable generators. An automatic transfer switch, paired with a permanently installed standby generator, senses an outage and switches the home over on its own within seconds, then switches back once utility power returns. We install both and help you decide which suits your generator, your budget, and how hands-off you want the system to be. Either way, the switching is safe and deliberate.
A generator has limited output, so we wire the transfer switch to the circuits that matter most in an outage, typically the furnace or boiler, the refrigerator, the sump pump, key lighting, and outlets for phones and medical equipment. We size the critical-load selection to your generator's capacity so it is not overloaded when everything you have backed up runs at once. That planning is what keeps the essentials on without tripping the generator. We walk you through the priorities before wiring the switch.
Backup-generator transfer switches are wired for homes across Queens, including Bayside, Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens, and Jamaica.