4mo ago

Cords

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210 comments

I used it to connect a generator to the wall and give me some temporary power in my house when I was renovating. It's only dangerous if you are stupid.
- Just because you didn't get hurt doesn't mean it wasn't dangerous.
  There's a reason the people who write the fire and electrical codes say that if you need to do something like that, you need to have a properly installed transfer switch.
  
  I mean, driving a car is dangerous, everything has a risk inherent to it but you can minimise it by being prudent.
  
  You turn off the breaker. You plug your generator abomination into a receptacle. Your partner checks the panel -- the breakers are off, it's safe to work with the electrical! They kill themselves.
  You could just not be a threat to yourself and people around you.
  
  Yes, you minimize risk by being prudent and using reasonable and cost effective safety measures.
  In a car, that's things like seatbelts, airbags, and other safety features.
  The equivalent for powering your house with a generator is the aforementioned transfer switch.
  What you're doing is saying that driving a car without seatbelts or airbags is perfectly safe, you just need to not get in an accident.
  Stop powering your house with a generator plugged in via the dumbest possible cable and just install a fucking transfer switch. They're not expensive and it keeps you from needlessly endangering people, or even just having a preposterously dangerous cord laying around.
- Not smart. You could kill yourself or some poor electrician working the problem outside your house somewhere.
- The backup-generator seems to be the one semi-legit use-case that keeps coming up where few people have been able to present a significantly better alternative.
  
  The safe method for a generator is a transfer switch. With that cable you make your circuit breaker useless and could also send power back out to the street and harm someone working on the problem.
  
  There's literally an approved solution to the problem designed explicitly to solve the problem.
  Install a transfer switch so you can disconnect utility power, switch to your generator and people can see the situation at the breaker.
  If you don't have one, you use something called an "extension cord" to run power to your important devices for the duration of the outage.
  If you don't know how to power a few appliances with a generator and some extension cords, you definitely shouldn't be thinking you can use a dangerous cable that people who do know you should never use in the first place.

210 comments