Interlock vs. throwing the main circuit breaker for generator powering a house

[otlski]

I did not read the whole thread so apologies if someone mentioned it already. If you are going to not have an interlock, please make the place you store whatever generator attachment cord you have right next to the main breaker box. That way you have to make a trip to the box anyway; a good reinforcing practice.

 

[CobyRupert]

Consider this: my neighbors a few doors down had a situation where a lightning strike shorted one leg of the 240v to the neutral underground. Lights became very bright, smoke from wall receptacles and after a short while, the entire house burned unto the basement. If the power had burned itself a disconnect, how would a standby generator without a neutral opening transfer switch reacted to this?

The reason I asked is because a few months ago, I had a 7600v underground line going from a pole to my on the ground transformer burn out and shorted to earth. If it had shorted to a neutral, my house could have been burned. The talk of neutral disconnect is new to this semi-annual discussion.

The neutral to your house is connected on the low/secondary side of the transformer. And it’s directly connected to ground rods.
Probably connected to a ground rod at your house and one at the transformer.
Your neutral is not connected to the 7600V high/primary side of the transformer or the line that shorted feeding it.
...maybe if the 7600V shorted to the case of the transformer, it may raise voltage on the neutral if the ground rods can’t absorb it all, but that would be momentarily until the 7600V feeder trips.

 

[MossRoad]

Can anyone find a documented case of a lineman being injured or killed from a generator backfeeding a line? I found only one instance, and it was not proven, and the company he was working for had questionable safety practices.

Not making lite of it at all. It should be interlocked or transfer switched. But just want to know if it has happened to a lineman, and, if so, how often does it happen.

 

[Hunter29]

Can anyone find a documented case of a lineman being injured or killed from a generator backfeeding a line? I found only one instance, and it was not proven, and the company he was working for had questionable safety practices.

Not making lite of it at all. It should be interlocked or transfer switched. But just want to know if it has happened to a lineman, and, if so, how often does it happen.

It happens, who would take a chance of killing someone..

 

[Industrial Toys]

Obviously, someone that is without power with a generator.

Like I said, I think it's standard safety proceedure for them to short out lines, OR consider them live. They are not that foolish. They wouldn't live very long in that job. And I'm sure in outages, they would be highly mindfull of the possibility of a backfeed.

 

[MossRoad]

It happens, who would take a chance of killing someone..

I can't find a documented case.

 

[MossRoad]

There may be one in '02 at a gas station. Still looking for details.

 

[MossRoad]

What I have found is several blogs/message boards for utility linemen. To a T, they expect homeowners to be idiots and blame any injuries on poor training by the employer of the lineman or lack of discipline in not following proceedures. One that they refer to in '05 says a homeowner came past them and fired up a generator while the lineman was working on a line he was told was grounded out. It wasn't grounded out, and they never proved any homeowner fired up a generator. The line may have touched something else. Regardless, it wasn't grounded out while he was working on it.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

You have to break a seal here to pull the meter. The utility gets kinda pissy when they find a broken seal due to so many people stealing electricity around here.

I broke the seal EVERY time I did it! And they put a new seal on, every time they replaced it.

SR

 

[Industrial Toys]

I should break mine and insert shorting bars everytime there is a terrible cold snap like this. We used to insert bars to get a customer back in service before the utility could get back there. Maybe, on new services. I don't remember why we wouldn't have had a meter.