Doug Miller wrote:
In article , Jim Redelfs wrote:
In article ,
Puddin' Man wrote:

I switch off the main breaker and use a gas powered 40A generator
to backfeed the 30A (220v) circuit for the elec. dryer.

What can I expect? Live circuits, dead circuits? Overload
conditions??
Dead linemen?

Yeah, yeah... You switched off the main breaker, but, in your urgency and in
the dark, flipped the WRONG breaker.

Oh, puhleeeze... don't be ridiculous.

If he has enough light (from a flashlight, candle, oil lamp, moonlight,
sunlight, cig lighter, Coleman lantern, jar full of fireflies, or whatever) to
connect the generator, how do you imagine that he can't see which breaker is
the main?

For that matter, even in the dark, how does he not *feel* which breaker is the
main?

And of course it should be obvious that, once the generator is on, there
*will* be lights available to check to make *sure* that the main is off.
Properly install and use a transfer switch or just run some extension cords to
essential appliances during the outage.

Or be aware of the difference between real and imagined hazards, take steps to
prevent the real ones (such as making sure the main breaker is off), and
ignore the imagined ones. Yes, a transfer switch is the right way to do it.
No, you can't just run an extension cord to a furnace or a well pump. In an
emergency, you do what you have to do.


Oh Please Doug. Explain the operation of a split buss panel! What is
the relationship between the dryer breaker of a split buss panel and the
main breaker? How does the service lateral to a detached garage and a
previously existing or newly installed lighting circuit that originates
in the house affect the reliability of the house's main breaker as an
isolating switch? How does the existence of a long disused meter tap
for off peak metering effect the likelihood of harm? How does the
presence of off peak metering connection and the faulting of a heating
element in the water heater effect outside wiremen safety? How much
will you bet that your suicide cord will never fall into the wrong hands?

Why does the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH) website contain several Fatality Assessment and Control
Evaluation(FACE) reports on linemen killed by generator back feeds? Do
you think each of those several generator users woke up one day and said
I think I'd like to kill someone today. I want to rend the hearts of an
unoffending widow and orphans with unavailing grief.
--
Tom Horne

Well we aren't no thin blue heroes and yet we aren't no blackguards to.
We're just working men and woman most remarkable like you.