A Transfer Test Should Use the Loads You Would Actually Keep On

A transfer test that makes the hallway lights blink is not a test of the building. It is a test of one circuit. We ask what you would keep on in a real outage: heat, well, walk-in, POS, medical fridge, barn fans. Then we transfer against that list. Prairie Power, a division of Kieley Electric, works this way across North Dakota and Minnesota.

Battery readiness is a different article. Snow blocking the pad is a different article. This is whether the switch actually carries the loads you named.

Write the list before we throw the switch

If the office server is on a random receptacle, it will not be on the generator unless we say so. If the well is on the generator and the pressure tank is not, you still have no water. Walk the panel with us. Our process page is how we commission. The list is how we know what to prove.

Time to transfer matters on a farm and in a clinic

A four-second dip that a house barely notices can drop a PLC or a medical fridge alarm. We time it. We do not assume “it transferred” means “it transferred clean.”

Return to utility is part of the test

A building that will not go back to the grid without a truck roll has not finished the test. We stay through the return. Service plans can put this on a recurring calendar.

What we need on the call

The loads you care about, last test date, and whether anything was added to the building since. Use contact or call 701 935 3617. Residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial sites all start with the same written list. More notes sit on the blog.