Electrical question

Did Bill git fried yet

__________________
Check it Out O added another Plank With O care
http://www.libertyzone.com/Communist...to-Planks.html

I think he's still looking for an available female to use.

__________________
Vicker
If you're born to hang, you'll never drown.

[quote=vicker;6700373]I think he's still looking for an available female to use.[/quote

__________________
Check it Out O added another Plank With O care
http://www.libertyzone.com/Communist...to-Planks.html

whoa! during a power failure you should NEVER EVER plug your generator into a house circuit unless you have disconnected the main first. This is not so much to protect your generator when the power comes back on (although it does this too) but to protect the lineman who is working on the lines trying to restore power.

__________________
"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

The "protecting the lineman" has been irrefutably proven false by Neon John (a professional who doesn't post in these forums). To cut to the chase - linemen are taught to ALWAYS treat a line as hot. There can be changes made in line status from repairs closer to the power station, automatic switching can occur, and even manual energizing may not have warning. What DOES happen is the home generator suddenly turns into hot scrap metal.

__________________
George Washington did not run and hide.

Or you could fry your "dumb" neighbor doing the same thing. OR it could be you, IF your "dumb" neighbor did it to you. Either way someone may be dumb and dead. If you or the neighbor plugged into the wall, and on your way (or the neighbor) to plug into the generator and touched the female end. Well there you (or the neighbor) are, you and/or the generator is fried....James

WHAT? You sound like Yoda, for pete's sake.

Yet, you find a rational explanation as to how, and why, polarized two prong devices first came into use, and why they are wired that way to be "odd". While I'm offering odd, useless info. on the subject. How many of us know that, when wiring with solid color, two wire lamp cord, (typically white, brown or black cable) there is a very subtle, nearly invisible ridge on the outside insulation of one of the conductors? This ridge is used to define the neutral side of the cable to allow lamps and other small appliances to be wired and repaired properly.

More of the odd, and useless, I guess?

Knew that, I did. The force is strong in you.

__________________
George Washington did not run and hide.

I clearly remember a professor forcing us to watch a safety video featuring a very young lineman with no arms below the elbow. He was working on a de-energized line that was suddenly back-fed, (switching error IIRC). After the accident he was working for the same company as a field super. and was actually amazed and happy that he even survived the incident at all. My local lost one man, and had another horribly disfigured and disabled, by unexpected back-feeds, during my career.

As for the claim by some magical "professional" you cite........ absolute Bulltwinkies. There have been MANY linemen killed by illegal back-feeds. Below is one of several found with a ten second Google search.

Alabama, July 14, 2005 - Sumter Electric Cooperative (SECO) officials report that a South Carolina lineman helping to restore power in Alabama after the damage caused by Hurricane Dennis was killed late Tuesday, reportedly by an improperly installed customer generator.

According to SECO Director of Public Affairs Barry Bowman, the lineman was helping to restore power lost during Hurricane Dennis to customers in Alabama. The report Bowman received indicated the lineman was working on a power line that was supposed to be dead. It was not.

“Tragically, the line this technician was working on was not dead,” said Bowman, “The line he was trying to repair had been re-energized by a customer who had improperly hooked up a generator and created a back feed of electricity from the generator into the supposedly dead line. The death of a lineman who was there to help the victims of Hurricane Dennis was the horrible result.”

Bowman noted that the lineman’s name was not immediately released, but he was from South Carolina and worked for Pike Electric, Inc. in North Carolina.

Alabama authorities are looking for the person responsible and indicate that charges are pending.

It's pretty easy to understand how this type of tragedy can occur. There are times when you are 15-20 hours into a storm emergency shift, and not thinking too clearly. Add the fact that your foreman has clearly identified multiple breaks, open switches, and dead transformer stations on the line side of the repairs you are about to undertake. Absent idiots with gypsy generator wiring, you know that there is no possible line potential until your crew makes the last splice, and closes the last switch. What could go wrong?

Which time zone?

__________________
Dear Math, it is time you grew up and solved your own problems.

<shrug> Don't bother arguing with me. Neon John is easily available on the net if you want to pee on electric fences. He isn't "magical." However, he WILL rip out your guts and serve them to you for breakfast if you don't dot your i s and cross your t s when challenging him. I've only come out on top in two debates with him, both because I had hands on done my homework. I already know how he is going to react to your Hurricane Dennis story, but I won't spoil it for you. Enjoy.

__________________
George Washington did not run and hide.

Gee, I'll be sure to tell my lineman BIL not to worry! No backfeeding idiot is going to kill him! Especially when he has been working 18 hours a day with no time off so that said idiot can have their morning toast! What a thank you!

Mon

__________________
"Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are
wonderful."

--Ann Landers

Given that there will always be backfeeding idiots (wisdom is an acquired trait) then a PROFESSIONAL linesman has a choice. He can recognize that and act accordingly, or he can short-cut the safety steps he has been drilled in. In that case, there are TWO idiots. How hard the second one works or what he gets paid is not part of the equation.

When I was about ten, I had a cousin who went up a pole on a regular maintenance job and didn't follow safety procedures. He came down without the ladder and covered in burns. After three days in hospital he finally died. He was a nice guy, no one could figure out why he did what he did, but he paid the price for his error. There is only ONE person responsible in 99.9% of linesmen deaths. The family can blame a backfeeder, or will of God (lightning strike), or a co-worker who energizes a line, but the cold hard truth is that with the possible exception of the 1 in 200 chance of a rare positive lightning bolt or physical weakness to the point that the linesman should not be working, all come down to not following safety protocols.

__________________
George Washington did not run and hide.

Harry always wears his seat belt, and never cleans his ears with a Q-tip, and , dang it, if a drunk wanders into the road ahead of his p/u truck, it's the drunks fault.

Yes, people working days in a row with little sleep to get your power and phone service back on do make mistakes. The jury will take that into account at the man slaughter trial.

I wouldn't be here if I hadn't been wearing my seat belt and shoulder harness - as I ALWAYS do - back in the mid-1970s when I was head-on hit by a drunk at .25 BAC. I guess if I had been killed because I didn't wear it, it would have been considered at his trial. At that point IT WOULDN'T MATTER TO ME. It isn't about legal blaming and name calling. It is about personal responsibility and staying alive.

I've told employers to go fry ice when I was asked to step beyond what I knew were safe conditions. Understand that linesmen are professionals doing a job and getting paid for that job. They are not a rag-tag band of neighbors with no training trying to help out a little old lady. A person who doesn't know his limits in such a critical job is a danger to others as well as himself.

__________________
George Washington did not run and hide.

People who exceed their limits in a dangerous job either end up as dead, hurt, or being called an uselfish person, hero or patriot.

Let's recall all our soldiers everywhere. I guess I should have "just said no" to the country..... war is just too durned dangerous. I mean, it is certainly beyond my limits to dodge a bullet or smell out a land mine. I guess the police better stop taking chances too. Just arrest those people with too many animals for their neighbors liking... stay away from murderers, looters, rapists, and burglers. Never know when one might have a gun.

Come on, Harry, when one is trying to help people in trouble, one puts forth the effort, ones crowds the hazzards. If any one of them had know that they pushed too far before they did, they wouldn't have. Of course there are people that don't care a fig about anyone, and certainly wouldn't put themselves in harms way.

Some one hooking a generator into public power lines is illegal and it is wrong. It is like somone tying their electric fence to 110v. Have you never touched an electric fence by accident? If you ended up getting electrocuted as a result, I don't think the fact you didn't use proper safter precautions ( you know, test all electric fences with a meter in case they are lethal, wear a fully insulated suit, etc etc.) If your granson got killed by touching an lethal electric fence accidently, I don't think you would be saying.... "well, its his own durn fault"

I like the way folks try to cover for workers not taking proper precautions when working on high voltage lines . If it is my life or Granny cooking her soup she can hold off a few minuets or cook over a camp fire

Now here we like in the land of chicken houses everyone which has a large i mean large generator should that auto change switch malfunction it can really put a back charge on a line .

Our power co folks said they do a thing called bridging those lines while working on them .Told me if some switch or something fails it would just smoke the generator ,it it didn't have a overload protection on it .

Stupid is stupid no matter if i do it or someone else does it . I have survived stupid three times i know of

__________________
Check it Out O added another Plank With O care
http://www.libertyzone.com/Communist...to-Planks.html

No one here is suggesting intentionally putting a generator on a power line so that it backfeeds. I just recognize that it can happen. Jim is correct on "bridging" being used as one method of a simple, fast, and effective safety measure to prevent harm. Yes people can push their own limits in certain jobs, but that does NOT excuse them failing to use basic precautions. An analogy to a linesman not using safety measures might be a member of a ski patrol rushing out on a rescue on a sub-zero day without bothering to put his boots on or bring hand protection. There IS a cure for stupidity. People just don't like it.

__________________
George Washington did not run and hide.

O.K.,you guys have really got it going but,can we get back to how to fry a dumb neighbor? I got one I'd like to get rid of!

Easy. We could tell you, but then...

__________________
George Washington did not run and hide.