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Swappable connection for some normally hard wired services (e.g. water pump)

  • 27-01-2025 04:05PM
    #1
    witnessmenow
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,403 ✭✭✭


    I'm wondering if there is a type of connector that can be used on say the connection to the a well water pump or the oil boiler, things that would normally be hard wired but in case of emergency could be connected to alternate source, like a generator, EV with Vehicle to Load, or one of those camping battery type things (power station?). Or how would this be typically handled?

    We have our power back so its more of a thought experiment at this stage, but the 3 things that we ideally could get running in the house during an extended power cut would be the fridge, water pump (we have a well) and maybe the oil boiler.

    The fridge would be easy, just unplug it from the wall and plug it into whatever source you have available. But the other two are hardwired in (i believe both of them have fused spur boxes)

    In theory you could add a single socket on the supply line to say the pump, and then add a socket to the wire to the pump. And if you were in a situation without power, you could unplug the pump from the regular supply socket and connect the pump to your alternate source. No chance of feeding power back anywhere you shouldn't and straight forward to swap over and back when needed. For reference the pump is a few 100W. But I don't think having a socket like this would be the best idea, so is there something else people do?



Comments

  • #2
    10-10-20
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 9,516 ✭✭✭10-10-20


    A 16A or 32A 'commando' socket would in theory do this just fine. A bit overkill for a 100w pump, but hey!

    https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/MKK9233BLU.html

    The connection to the board wouldn't be straight-forward though as the generator input would normally be physically isolated from the board through a change-over-switch. Not sure how you would work around that limitation and still be within spec to be honest.



  • #3
    witnessmenow
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,403 ✭✭✭witnessmenow


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123105471#Comment_123105471

    I'm not sure I explained it properly, my initial thinking is would it be possible to do it without connecting to the board.

    If you go with the inline socket scenario I was talking about. So essentially you would cut the existing connection from the board to pump and replace it with a socket on the board side and a plug on the pump side. So for normal operation these would be connected together.

    In the event of a power cut, just plug the pump out of this socket, and plug it into the generator. The pump would be completely isolated from the house because it's not plugged in anymore.

    When the power comes back, just plug it back into the socket

    I'm just trying to think what's the simplest way that is safe to be able run the pump if the power didn't come back. Like even if I did have access to a generator, I wouldn't have had a way of connecting it without doing something like disconnecting it from the house at the fused spur switch and connecting the generator there instead which sounds like a crappy way of doing it for lots of reasons!



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