• Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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    4 days ago

    If you have to ask, don’t do it.

    The proper way to connect a generator is with a breaker panel interlock. This gives you a circuit breaker for the main, grid power; a second breaker for the generator; and an interlock device that only allows one of those two breakers to be active at any given time.

    Trying to use a suicide cable can get power into the house; disconnecting the main breaker would prevent the generator from back feeding the grid. However, the circuit you are plugging the breaker into is only rated to 15 or 20 amps, and you’re backfeeding it with a lot more. You can easily overload this circuit without actually blowing a breaker.

    There’s other problems as well: your house wiring is designed for two opposing hot, 110v phases. These are combined to provide 220v power to major appliances. Improperly backfeeding your wiring can potentially damage those major appliances.

    You are better off with a nice, heavy-duty extension cord than a half-assed suicide cable.

    • hansolo@lemm.ee
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      4 days ago

      Lol, not going to do it. Been mildly electrocuted too many times to mess around with something like this.

      More so curious about the physics here, but I see it’s basically a roll of the dice that it does work and doesnt just fry everything.