Hi ame,

I appreciate the safety lesson on connecting our hunt camp wiring to a generator.

I am not skilled in electrical techniques but I will print out your message and provide it to the member in our camp who is.

Even from reading your post I can understand how it would be much safer to hardwire a connection into the camp system.

Thanks for the advice,

Mike

"... but any lineman worth his salt is going to take appropriate steps to safegaurd against such stray currents anyways, or they ought not be doing that sort of work."

Linemen can be just as stupid and careless as plumbers, septic tank cleaners, veterinarians and soldiers.

I was recently driving a RR crew member who used to be a lineman, and he was telling us all the different ways that they get killed. Some were true accidents, some were from stupidity.

Don't assume.

Sue

Hey Ame,

I spoke to the electrical guy at my camp today and we are on that safety "double male plug" problem first thing in the spring, it is an easy fix.

Thanks again,

Mike

When I connect my generator up to the home-20, I do the following:

1) Isolate the house from the electric grid at the main breaker.
2) Pull the stove's circuit breaker.
3) Connect a 220vac wire to the stove circuit breaker and re-install the stove circuit breaker.
4) Plug the 220vac wire into the generator receptacle for 220vac.
5) Secure every circuit breaker on the circuit breaker box.
6) Start the generator and then enegize those circuits that you wish to use.
7) You must know the power draw of the equipment that you wish to run in your house. A 60w light bulb draws 60 watts. Don't try to run more equipment than what your generator can support.

I run the lights, TV, Computor, and cable box. I secure everything when I want to run the refrigerator and freezer, after I pull out what I want for the day.

That's how I do it!!

Yes, it would, except that in SwampDonkey's case there is no grid power. The generator is the only source of power.

A

My parents house and my grandmothers house both have emergency lighting and backup generators. My apartment, I probably wouldn't even notice if the power went out, except for my TV and electric stove not turning on. Wouldn't really bother me though.

I was thinking how to set it up for the posts that started the topic. For SwampDonkey, an RV set-up with cold male from the wall to hot generator would work great.

Yep, "Stupid is as Stupid does..." is a good topical quote for the human factor.

I've circumvented procedure for whatever reason more than once and been nailed for it too. It happens to the best of us I suppose. We all have our stupid moments; the lucky ones survive and hopefully learn an unpleasant but important lesson.

Now, as with firearms, I assume the item in question is in a potentially lethal configuration until I've proven that it isn't, such as using a probe, locking out the circuit, etc. I go through the checklist, and if I am not familiar with the circuit, then I don't proceed until I am. I don't rely on someone else to tell me it is okay anymore. I check it myself, and check my test equipment against a known standard so I know the test equipment is working as it should. You can never be too careful.

Even so, there are inherent risks in such endeavors that simply cannot be totally mitigated. There is no such thing as foolproof, or 100%, or totally isolated. But if you take the necessary steps to eliminate the most likely threats, and be wary of the murphy factor, then there is a certain amount of hazard that I guess we can live with, or else we'd never get anything done I suppose.

It took time and experience for me to become worth my salt as a technician, even with the best training up front money could buy. I don't make the sort of mistakes that created unnecessary hazards in the past, but I still make mistakes, and I still face hazards even now. I am not as sloppy nor as hasty about things as I was at first. Taking 500 volts across the chest will educate you pretty well I reckon, if you survive it, which I was fortunate enough to do.