Antipodean Bucket Farmer wrote:

In article ,
says...
wrote:

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 17:14:58 GMT, "Pete C."
wrote:

The bottom line is that you can not kill a lineman by inadvertently back
feeding the mains. In order for the lineman to be killed he must also
not follow established procedures for his work.

Pete C.

The lineman issue is potentially a problem but the real thing that
keeps you from backfeeding the grid is the grid itself. When your tiny
little generator hits your neighbor's A/C units and whatever else they
still have on, your generator's breaker will trip. On my street there
are about a dozen houses fed from a common secondary set and 4
transformers, all in parallel. It would take a very big genset to even
bump that line. Unless the primary is broken on your dead end street,
very close to your house, you will also be trying to feed all the
other streets.

I'm lucky in that I share a 50KVA transformer with one neighbor.

The numerous issues in even creating a situation that could allow a
lineman to kill himself aside, the bottom line is that it will take
careless actions on the lineman's part for an injury to occur. Your
careless back feeding of the mains in the rare case where that is even
possible will not be the cause of death, it will only be an enabling
factor.

Arguing about the details on Usenet is easy. But, even
if you are technically "right," (and, legally, that
might not be good enough), would you really want to
risk arguing the matter in court, AFTER someone has
died, and the utility and that court are looking to
punish someone?

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Let's not get into the corrupt and bogus legal system...

Pete C.