I just shut down my Vidhata after the first test of my standby power system and gentlemen, I'm pleased to say the least.
I described my setup in a previous post, but basically it consists of a breaker lockout in my main panel with five selected circuits. Those circuits are lights, a few plugs, my fridge, freezer and furnace. Not much of a load but that's because my generator is only 2500 watts. A 20 amp cord is plugged into the generator and then into a designated outlet in the garage, which takes the power to the main panel. After that it's just a matter of shutting all the circuits off except the designated ones and flipping on the generator breaker.
It's cold here today (18*), with an ice fog.......perfect for a test of a "worst case scenario". I decided on a squirt of ether but found that to be a questionable idea. First of all, I don't like using the stuff as it's hard on engines. Second, my Listeroid actually "kicked back" a bit.......not enough to hurt me, but enough to let me know that ether will be a last resort.
The engine fired up easily and smoked like mad at first (cold). I gave it only a couple of minutes of running before I shut off my main breaker and engaged the generator breaker(s). I went back in my house and found all of my ceiling lights operating normally, with the exception of the back bedrooms.......flicker. This is because we've replaced the others with either LED's or CFL's and those do not flicker. If anything they seem a little brighter (governor is set to put out 125 volts). All of the designated plugs work. My fridge is working along with the propane furnace and since the freezer in the garage is on the same plug as the furnace I can only assume it works also. The total load with everything on.....only 5 amps! I don't know if the fridge or freezer kicked on or not, but there's plenty of "amps" left for them.
In short, everything works as planned thanks to a lot of forethought and good advice from folks here on the forum. Now, all I need is another power outage at an opportune time so I can "show off" a bit..........and fight off the neighbors.
Think I'll kick back with a cup of coffee now and celebrate. Just a little.