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My home has a Connecticut Electric EmerGen Switch #10-7500 with a 4 prong 30 amp locking power inlet. I also have a Goal Zero Yeti 1500X Power Station (a lithium battery and inverter). Is it possible to supply power from the Yeti to the transfer switch? If so, what kind of cable or other adapters do I need? My goal is to be able to keep a few essential systems powered during an outage.

Here's a photo of the inlet on the transfer switch. Bottom of transfer switch panel showing a 30 amp 4 pin locking inlet, 2 Watts gauges, an "EmerGen Switch by Connecticut Electric Switch Mfg Co and a Type B 3 prong power outlet

GoalZero sells a Yeti Home Integration Kit compatible with my model that includes a transfer switch with a 3-prong inlet, with a cable that plugs into the Yeti's Type B outlet on the other side. Their support told me that if I already have a transfer switch, I just need an appropriate heavy-duty cable to connect the two.

Would something like https://www.parkworld.us/885477-p203.html work?

Thank you!

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Yes, that will work. However, you will not be able to power any 240V devices and you will have only one hot leg of your panel working. Which means you want to make sure your refrigerator, internet equipment (router/etc.) and other critical loads are all on the same leg. Typically the legs alternate with paired rows in your panel - e.g., if odd 1,3,5,... down the left and even 2,4,6,... down the right then 1,2,5,6,9,10, etc. are on one leg and 3,4,7,8,11,12, etc. are on the other leg.

But keep in mind that 1500Wh really won't last you very long. The meters on this box are designed to show up to 3750W per leg, total 7500W. That matches well with both the nominal capacity of a 30A circuit (7200W) and the size of many readily available generators. Your battery box, fully charged, will (nominally, I suspect real available capacity will be lower to avoid 100% draining the battery which doesn't work well) last one hour at 1500W, 3 hours at 500W, etc. A 7500W generator can typically run for several hours on a tank of gas, and that's producing a few thousand W (you generally don't want to run it at max. capacity for too long).

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  • One more thing to mention is that it is not safe to run the power station hot to both inlet hots. This is due to the possibility of overloading the neutral on an MWBC.
    – DoxyLover
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 5:52
  • @DoxyLover Yes, there's only a danger if there are MWBCs on the transfer switch. If careful inspection reveals the xfer switch to be MWBC-free, then splitting is fine.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 6:00
  • Does the Parkworld adapter I linked bridge the two hots? It looks like it based on the “X Y Bridged” in its diagram. I don’t think I have any way of knowing if the transfer switch has MWBCs or not.
    – daxelrod
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 15:36
  • If it says "bridged", that sounds like it sends your power to both hots. As far as MWBC, that is in general a critical warning. To be honest, in your specific situation - 1500Wh total, 2000W rated maximum output (which is a little more than a 15A hots-merged MWBC can handle but fine for a 20A) and 3500W "surge", you simply don't have an issue. If you are using this thing even at 500W, it will only last 3 hours. To be honest, this is a big (but not huge) fancy UPS. And overpriced. You're paying for all the different inputs/outputs, but unless you are going to use for camping/off-grid with
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 15:48
  • solar charging by day and low usage, it just won't get you very far. And a crazy price to do that.
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 15:48

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