4mo ago

Cords

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210 comments

as someone who has strung a ton of lights the wrong way around on more than one occasion... I can understand the desire for some magic solution that doesnt require undoing and redoing your work..
but fuck, You don't mess around with electricity.
People also make these stupid suicide cables to plug generators into houses during disasters, often backfeeding power into the lines that may be down and can cause serious injury to workers trying to restore power.
- FYI, you can just turn off the main breaker of the residence to prevent backfeeding into the power lines.
  
  You can, but if forgetting to flip a switch can result in death, then you need a stronger safety control
  
  Someone incompetent enough to forget to shut off the main shouldn't be operating a generator anyway.
  
  That's not the point. Normal, sensible people make mistakes because they are tired or stressed or got distracted or just plain unlucky, so things have to be designed so that people can make a mistake and it not instantly create a potentially lethal situation
  
  I don't think you completely understand what's being discussed here.
  
  Someone who's not competent enough to install a proper transfer switch (or at least hire a professional to do it) shouldn’t be operating a generator.
  
  If someone can't make the own cord, what's the chance they know how vital it is to flip the breaker?
  
  .... Except the breaker only interrupts the connection on the "hot" line....
- Yeah, there is a reason why proper installations require actual transfer switches or at least a manual interlock to prevent both feeds being connected at the same time. I'm also not sure what would happen if your generator was out of phase with the grid when it reenergised, but I'm sure it wouldn't be good
  
  If your generator was connected to mains when they came back on it would probably just kill your generator. It is the least robust device in the chain. The next step is blowing up the transformer on the pole which is a spectacular light show. It is also very expensive, and will piss off your entire neighborhood who were just about to get power back and now have to wait for the power company to fix the transformer you blew up by being a dumb ass. Finally it is possible that you would trip out the switch yard which is going to make even more people angry. The biggest risk is you putting power back on the lines that people are working on. That transformer on the pole works both directions. It drops the usual 13.8kV on your local power lines to the 240/120V in your house. It will also turn the 120/240 from your generator into 13.8 on the lines that are being worked on. 13.8 will kill you before you even know you touched it. That is why line workers go through multiple tests before they get near lines they are working on. They will notice there is power on lines that are supposed to be dead. They will find where that power is coming from. They will fine you lots of money. There may be criminal charges.

210 comments