Odd marketing at Lowe's and Home Depot
Power outages are common hereabouts; the primary cause is lines torn down by trees. Generally they only last for a few hours but a few outages have gone on for days and the last big one persisted for two weeks We have a portable generator for backup power. While the generator is a very useful thing to have it does have its limitations. They are noisy and use quite a bit of fuel and because we don't have ours hardwired into our house it uses a heavy extension cord to supply, at best, the equal to four outlets for power.
I've been helping my son build a house and we've started to wire it. We plan to do the wiring in such a way that in the event of an extended power failure, which is inevitable, a safe, quick, and relatively easy switch to generator power can be made. This is normally done by installing a special switching box that safely disconnects the house from street power as it reroutes the connection to generator power. When used the generator's limited power is then directed to pre-selected crucial circuits in the house. The switches are reasonably well made and meet the requirements of electrical codes nationwide. These generator switches are commonly available and retail in the ~ $250 range. Both Lowe's and Home Depot (and half of the hardware stores in the country) carry the switches and there isn't five dollars difference in the prices between them. Instillation of one of the switches is somewhat complicated and best left to an experienced electrician, who will take several hours to install the device.
But there is another way to safely switch your home's power supply from the street to a generator. This one also meets the requirements of the various codes and with this one the user is not limited to pre-selected circuits to energize. The major difference between this one and the $250 version is that this second one cost's $45 and can be installed in the home by a reasonably competent do-it-yourselfer in about a half hour leaving it ready to be connected to the generator as needed.
Now here is the thing: Both Lowe's and Home Depot carry both types of the switching units, the $250 version and the $45 version. You can find them listed in products available on their respective websites. But while the $250 switch can be found on the shelf at any one of either of the companies thousands of stores the only way you can get one of the $45 switches is to order it on line and have it shipped to you, they are not even available for in-store pick-up.
To recount: $250 item, commonly available and works well, meets electrical code requirements but has limited utility.
$45 item, not stocked and not advertised, works well, meets electrical code requirements and has greater utility.
How can that be? Aren't these, as advertised, customer-friendly stores doing their best to meet your needs? Let me suggest that there is a great deal more room for profit selling the $250 item than there is for an item costing a fifth that much. And so the shelves are stocked as they are. Too cynical? You decide.
= new reply since forum marked as read
