There's been a lot of discussion about how to SAFELY connect a generator, so I thought I'd give a little dissertation on how NOT to do it.
Power was out at my house in the winter for 9 days due to an ice storm. After three days and no end in sight, I decided to hook up my little generator, previously used only for remote-powering electric tools. I figured it put out enough power to run my gas furnace's blower and maybe a light or two. Mindful of backfeed problems, I removed the electric meter. I made up a double-male cord and plugged the generator into an outlet on the back porch. Here's where I got stupid. The outlet was on the opposite phase from the furnace. Easy solution: strap the two phases together inside the breaker box with a piece of 12ga, after carefully turning off both the 220 brakers. AOK, right?
Well it was - and I was able to run the furnace enough to keep the pipes from freezing.
Fast forward six days. Power restored to my neighborhood. So, I disconnected the generator and plugged the meter back in. Oops, skipped one step. I completely forgot about having strapped the hots together. Quite a fireworks display ensued within the meter base, and by the grace of God, that's all. I guess he really does look out for fools. I removed the strap, and managed to get the meter back on its base despite the damage, which was amazingly minor.
Days later, with power restored to neary all half million people who had been without, the ElecCo came by, just doing final checks, spotted the unsealed meter and the damaged contacts, and replaced the whole thing. Never even billed me for it, which I certainly deserved.
The moral: Don't cut corners!! This could have been fatal!
Power was out at my house in the winter for 9 days due to an ice storm. After three days and no end in sight, I decided to hook up my little generator, previously used only for remote-powering electric tools. I figured it put out enough power to run my gas furnace's blower and maybe a light or two. Mindful of backfeed problems, I removed the electric meter. I made up a double-male cord and plugged the generator into an outlet on the back porch. Here's where I got stupid. The outlet was on the opposite phase from the furnace. Easy solution: strap the two phases together inside the breaker box with a piece of 12ga, after carefully turning off both the 220 brakers. AOK, right?
Well it was - and I was able to run the furnace enough to keep the pipes from freezing.
Fast forward six days. Power restored to my neighborhood. So, I disconnected the generator and plugged the meter back in. Oops, skipped one step. I completely forgot about having strapped the hots together. Quite a fireworks display ensued within the meter base, and by the grace of God, that's all. I guess he really does look out for fools. I removed the strap, and managed to get the meter back on its base despite the damage, which was amazingly minor.
Days later, with power restored to neary all half million people who had been without, the ElecCo came by, just doing final checks, spotted the unsealed meter and the damaged contacts, and replaced the whole thing. Never even billed me for it, which I certainly deserved.
The moral: Don't cut corners!! This could have been fatal!