I got lucky tonight

[bschwartz]

I usually come home from work, start the listeroid, shut off the breakers to the grid, then turn on the breakers to the roid.
That went as normal.
This evening at shut down, I ususally shut off the roid breakers, then turn on the grid breakers........
I must have not shut the roid breakers completely and they snapped back on.......
I flipped the grid breakers back on.
I went to shut down the roid by flipping the fuel shutoff lever, but nothing happened....
Apparently the ST-5 will work as a motor keeping the roid running.
I turned the fuel on and off a few times till I realized what happened.

Big sigh of relief after shutting off the roid breakers that no smoke came out of the situation.
I guess the voltage, frequency and phase were just right that I didn't hear any bad noises.

[mobile_bob]

you should get dressed and immediately go out and buy a lottery ticket!

luck like that is about as rare as being stuck by lightening... twice

bob g

if i were to do something like that, there would have been flames, sparks, smoke, hunks of cast iron flailing about
and i would have had to burn my shorts too



bob g

[vdubnut62]

You must be livin' Right!
What Mobile_Bob said, plus I would be taking a bath in the creek.....with a flashlight.

Ron

[mbryner]

Where's your grid-intertie transfer switch?   We're going to find pieces of you scattered all over sometime, Brett.

[JohnF]

I got lucky tonight too....Oh wait, this isn't the XXX board??

[Fat Charlie]

I'm shaking just reading about it. 

Brett's account, not John's.

[AdeV]

I guess the voltage, frequency and phase were just right that I didn't hear any bad noises.

You mean you didn't hear the power co's generator belt chirp? 

[TimSR2]

Locked on to the grid, lol. I did that once too.  I guess that's why them make those transfer switch thingies 

[bschwartz]

I have the transfer switch hooked up to the 6.5 PMG.  I foolishly just hooked up two sets of breakers while testing the BS-ST head mod.
That should teach me..... (but it won't) 

[clytle374]

I was just yesterday warning someone not to use a suicide plug to install their generator. Glad you got lucky and didn't give me a 'this could be you' example.

Scary stuff.

[cognos]

I gotta ask - what's a "suicide plug?"

I have a 5KW Briggs/Coleman emergency generator for power outages. On my house, for some reason, the original owner installed a "farm service", which houses a meter, and 2 switches with breakers, and a plug-in for a generator. Throw the switch, and you can either run the house on gennie or line power, but never both at the same time. There's even provision for a lock to locl one source or the other out.

The gennie connects to the farm service with a cord - male on one end plugs into the 30Amp/240v twistlock, female end mates with a recessed male plug mounted on the bottom of the panel.

My startup routine is this - plug gennie into panel. Fire up the generator, let it warm up for a few minutes. Throw the switch on the panel, and lock out the line switch.

[Wizard]

Suicide cords is a extension cord with both male plugs.  Illegal, and no provision to interlock because of not having or using transfer switch.  Also no inspection means insurance issues.

Cheers, Wizard

[cognos]

I see... I now understand the nickname completely...

I like my system, it's nice and safe... only problem with it, I never know if the power comes back on, unless I get out my binoculars and look for lights in neighbor's house down the road... and before you ask, no, I'm not a peeping Tom, the only light I can see is on my neighbor's garage, nothing to see there... should ask Ontario Hydro to put a line-power pilot light on my service panel. Wonder what the monthly charge for that would be...

[clytle374]

The most common use of a suicide cord is to throw the main breaker and plug into the dryer outlet. 

Pretty sure the law would call it a manslaughter cord if someone forgets the main breaker, during a power outage.

[Carlb]

I see... I now understand the nickname completely...

I like my system, it's nice and safe... only problem with it, I never know if the power comes back on, unless I get out my binoculars and look for lights in neighbor's house down the road... and before you ask, no, I'm not a peeping Tom, the only light I can see is on my neighbor's garage, nothing to see there... should ask Ontario Hydro to put a line-power pilot light on my service panel. Wonder what the monthly charge for that would be...

The way i deal with the issue of when the power is turned on is simple.  I transfer all critical circuits  when I run the generator but not everything.  When I switch to the generator only the loads going through the transfer switch are switched so all of the other circuits in the house are still connected to the grid.  I just plug a radio into one of the outlets that is still on mains power and when the power comes back on the radio comes on letting me know i can turn the generator off.

carl