"Ignoramus8844" wrote in message
...
On 2010-05-12, Steve W. wrote:
Ignoramus8844 wrote:
On 2010-05-11, Karl Townsend wrote:
"stryped" wrote in message
...
On May 11, 8:13 am, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:
What about an interlock kit somethign like this:
http://www.nooutage.com/interlock_kits.htm#Whatdoes a typical
installation look like?
That looks like a good route to go.

Don't scrimp with the extension cord route. When you're in the middle
of a
long power outage you don't want to make life worse not being able to
turn
stuff on.

P.S. My dad was a utility line foreman for thirty years. They will
"fix
ya"
so you won't get power for weeks if they see the suicide plug route.
The
goal is to do it well enough that the whole neighborhood knows. You'll
have
a little note in your meter loop panel that says "high sider" so even
the
local private electricians won't touch your problem.

Karl
Why are they called suicide plugs?


the public doesn't realize how dangerous this is. The power from your
little
genny will feed backward through your transformer and energize the high
voltage side utility lines for miles. Touch one of these wires and
you're
dead.

Karl, if that was to happen, then this "little genny" would be trying
to power the homes that are connected to those lines? How could it
handle that?

i

Simple. See that big transformer out on the pole. It works both ways.

Steps up the voltage your feeding it to line voltage. That line voltage
doesn't have to be high amperage to kill you.

Steve, it is not that simple.

If many homes are connected to the house backfeeding the grid, then
the generator would be running those homes.


That would only occur if and only if there wasn't a broken conducter that
has reached the ground.

Under your scenario there would be no need for the generator since
electrical power would already have been restored.

The backfeed hazard occurs before that: when the power line is still down
and people are attempting to reconnect the wires. This is when a backfeeding
power source can be quite deadly for the people who are working on the
lines.

It is this hazard which mandates either a transfer switch which
automatically disconnects the utility service when generator power is
applied. While a "poor boy" method of simply manually shutting off the
utility service before attempting to start the generator will work, it is
not an acceptable alternative.