Chris Lewis wrote:
According to Jeff Wisnia :


The first thing which struck me as having a strong smell of stupid about
it was that the installer had mounted a four pole 30 amp female socket
on an inside garage wall and made my friend a 30 foot flexible cord with
a MALE plug on BOTH ends to use to connect his new generator to that
receptical. The ramifications of using male plug on the house end of
that cable hould be obvious to a blind man.


Etcetera.

I'm going to pull together several of the other comments and make a few
of my own.

First off, connecting a generator this way is absolutely code-illegal
everywhere in North America. In Canada, getting caught doing this could
result in a $6K fine and potentially jail time even without it
"doing something bad".

[The electric utilities act of Ontario takes non-code electrical
wiring very seriously if law enforcement want to press charges.]

Worse if you cause damage. Much worse if you hurt or kill someone.

Technically, the electrician could certainly argue that "I just
installed a dryer outlet, what the homeowner does with it is _his_
responsibility". So, in some sense, the electrician _might_ be able to
evade unpleasant consequences.

Trouble is, he knew what it was for - he told the guy to make a suicide
cord. Likely without telling the homeowner that it's bad or why.
That's at least professional malfeasance. Perhaps criminal negligence.
Depends on what happens. And how hard the authorities want to work
it/make an example.

Which if it comes to court, you'll have the homeowner trying to
shift blame to the electrician. Which the electrician may win,
or he may lose. Most likely, both lose.

Losing _may_ mean more than just losing a license. Here, worst case,
BOTH the electrician and the homeowner end up with fines and jail time,
and the electrician will be out of a career when he gets out of jail.

If the homeowner could prove that the electrician advised him to
do it this way, the electrician will "get it" worse than the homeowner.

If he's _really_ luckly. That's poor odds.

Secondly, consider insurance. This is a serious no-no. If that thing
causes a fire or kills someone, do you think an insurance company will
cover it? Not a chance.

Certainly, during an emergency, you gotta do what you gotta do. But
planning and installing an illegal connection ahead of time is going
to knock that excuse down the toilet if anybody gets hurt.

During the great ice storm, I saw worse things when we gave
the worst hit areas some assistance with inspecting home generator
installations. But those were jury-rigged during a dire emergency,
and we made sure that they were as safe as they could possibly be.
Disconnected the scariest one - but fortunately, he was one of the
few who had just gotten power back.


Thanks, Cris and the others for confirming what I strongly suspected
when I made the OP on this thread.

I'm going to tell my friend all the reasons reasons he should get that
setup changed over to use a transfer switch system of whatever size is
required for him to power up as many circuits he feels necessary to have
during a power outage, within the limits of the 7.5 KW genny he now
owns. That should be big enough to handle his well pump, a few lights,
and the refrigerator.

My friend has relied on me for technical advice for over thirty years
now, as I have on his medical knowledge and skills, which has included
his patching up my body and bones more than once.G

I know he can easily afford to get the job redone right so that his
family can enjoy their well earned retirement with peace of mind.

I was a little suprised that the "owners committee" in the gated
community he chose to build in didn't have rules about such things
already in place. I guess they are just a bunch of well to do
non-techies who know just enough to fret about and bug the property
owners over things like roof shingles looking faded and the necessity
for frequent grooming of their shrubs.G

Thanks again guys,

Jeff

--
My name is Jeff Wisnia and I approved this message....

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"