> Why not make a permanent point to attach your generator to?  They 
 > make switching gear that is designed for this application.  It is 
 > simply a three-position break-before-make switch....power company 
 > -or- off -or- generator.
 > 
 > If you can get military surplus, the Navy calls this an ABT, which 
 > is short for  Automatic Bus Transfer.  These had 3 positions:  
 > Normal, alternate, and emergency.  If you had a loss of power on the 
 > normal bus, it would switch to Alternate.  If no power available 
 > there it would switch to emergency.
Northern sells these transfer switches also. They're typically wired to a 
sub-panel that has 'critical' loads on it so that your generator powers only 
the important stuff and you don't need to be concerned about switching off 
the water heater, stove, etc.
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