this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2024
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hmmm
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Despite all the hate, I do have one of these. I used to have a box next to my furnace with a male end, wired up to the switch so that if the power went out for a longer duration in the winter, I could plug the furnace into the generator with an extension cord and heat the house. When the furnace was replaced, I was too lazy to wire up another. A friend who's dad is a master electrician told us that in an emergency, you could flip all the breakers in the box to off including that mains, use a male to male cable to plug the generator into a wall outlet and flip on the furnace breaker and the breaker where the generator is plugged in and power the furnace that way (so long as both circuits were amp rated the same).
Of course, it came with a disclaimer that he'd deny telling us this to the insurance company and a warning that "bad things would happen" if we somehow enabled the mains to the power company.
ah yes, a suicide cord. that's why there's warnings about them in every hardware store.
you can't stop stupid, but you can inform people they are stupid.
yes, it works in a pinch, but when you're cold and stressed when power goes out at 3am will you remember to plug it into the wall first? will you remember to cut off mains before you turn on your generator? will you remember to do the steps in reverse when power comes back?
I'm harsh because I've almost killed myself with one before, because I'm an idiot who (just like everyone else) thought, "I'm smarter than most people when it comes to this stuff".
get an interlock kit. save yourself and the lineman.
Have to be pretty inexpensive right?
There's a reason code requires generators to have an interlock with the mains, and it's primarily so people don't electrocute lineworkers.
In a local grid where the electric company actually allows you to feed back power it must also be possible to disconnect the generator automatically if your inverter detects the grid is down. Because of that these power companies typically only allow approved solar power systems to get connected to the grid to make sure it's one that will disconnect.
Also be warned that you must plug in any generator as close to the breaker box as possible. Outlets and their wiring far away may be underdimensioned for powering anything significant further away. Also be warned that everything you're powering together must be limited by the dimensions of the one outlet you're using. The wires don't know any difference between AC in or AC out. For example it's max 10A? Then that's your limit for everything combined.
Knowing what I know about this house, I don't think i'd ever trust the wiring enough to try something like this.