Battery Tender/ Power Outage Question
#31
11-08-2011, 12:52 PM
Wow, you are lucky. I had a lightning strike on the next block take out my APC 1400XL and my internet modem and my 10/100 switch once late at night. Luckily, I had my servers plugged into an APC Pro 1000 which was plugged into the 1400XL and stopped the surge (which it recorded over 400v 
. That surge took out the furnace and a/c controls and all of the computers in the accounting office next door plus blew the night lights on the building and melted a lot of wiring. My office smelled like a burning tire for about 3 days.
Since then, I have everything I own plugged into a surge protector.
. That surge took out the furnace and a/c controls and all of the computers in the accounting office next door plus blew the night lights on the building and melted a lot of wiring. My office smelled like a burning tire for about 3 days. Since then, I have everything I own plugged into a surge protector.
#32
11-08-2011, 12:54 PM
An acquaintance of mine , an licensed electrician, got a small job hooking up an injection mold machine at Oakley about 25+ years ago. He never checked any voltage on the circuit and assumed he was hooking up 220 and was actually hooking up 277 3 ph, well he ended up back feeding the excess voltage into the neutrals that fed the front end of the shop, the offices, well when he got done, he thru the switch to energize the circuit and the people came running out of the offices saying "what is going on my phone doesn't work, my adding machine is smoking" so on and so forth, I thought it was funny, my "electrician" acquaintance did not, he lost more money than he made.
My adding machine is smoking......ooops
#33
11-08-2011, 01:01 PM
"ole 3 phase"
Oakley never used him again....strange, lol. Funny thing he has a fairly thriving residential electrical business, not much 3 phase in homes. My pops laughed his butt off when he heard what happened and nick named him "ole 3 Phase" from that day on.
#34
11-08-2011, 02:31 PM
Outstanding HDF Member
Hadn't thought about that one....now I'm off to buy a surge protector..
#35
11-08-2011, 03:24 PM
The only safe and legal way to backfeed is by using a UL listed interlock kit. The person that sets up the generator feed may know not to close the main while the gen is running but others may not. You can set yourself up for involuntary manslaughter if you kill a line man. Plus, you can also fry the gen head as it briefly tries to power the neighborhood.
#36
11-08-2011, 04:29 PM
Grand HDF Member
You are going to have to explain to me why it is so very dangerous if you have the MAIN switched OFF.
#37
11-08-2011, 05:03 PM
Ok, here's what you should do. Turn off your main breaker at the panel, then one night go with a long extension cord and plug it into your neighbors outdoor outlet, bury it in the snow so he doesn't see it. Plug the other end into one of your outlets. You're now running off his power. Just do it at night when your lights are off. Your furnace motor won't blow the breaker, you'll save tons of money on power. 
#38
11-08-2011, 05:46 PM
Ok, here's what you should do. Turn off your main breaker at the panel, then one night go with a long extension cord and plug it into your neighbors outdoor outlet, bury it in the snow so he doesn't see it. Plug the other end into one of your outlets. You're now running off his power. Just do it at night when your lights are off. Your furnace motor won't blow the breaker, you'll save tons of money on power.
#39
11-08-2011, 05:48 PM
Extreme HDF Member
Ok, here's what you should do. Turn off your main breaker at the panel, then one night go with a long extension cord and plug it into your neighbors outdoor outlet, bury it in the snow so he doesn't see it. Plug the other end into one of your outlets. You're now running off his power. Just do it at night when your lights are off. Your furnace motor won't blow the breaker, you'll save tons of money on power.
#40
11-08-2011, 09:09 PM
Ultimate HDF Member
With either a manual or an automatic electrical transfer switch it is impossible for the emergency standby generator system to feed electricity to the power grid. You may know that you'd never close the main switch while the generator is in operation but the possibility that someone else closing the main breaker errantly does exist.
Hence, the National Electric Code says a lineman's life should never be risked due to back feeding electrical currents from standby generators powering homes and businesses and transfer switches must be used.
Requiring transfer switches for standby power systems is kinda' like addressing and heading off Murphy's Law at the pass.