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Backfeeding house from generator

XtremeJ

XtremeJ

Wanker
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
893
Messages
242
Loc
Redstone Canyon, Masonville, Colorado, USA
Yup. About to kill a bus load of nuns

cameron Peak Fire has the canyon under mandatory evacuation and local power has shut off power to protect the fire crews. I have a 14kw Wacker generator and can run extension cords to the appliances needed

i want to back feed the house and before everyone screams murder I have
killed main breaker on house panel
thrown transfer switch on meter at pole
made a male to male suicide cord

when I plug the cord into an outlet the circuit breaker on the generator trips as soon as I throw the breaker. I suspect this is due to the GFCI on the generator

All breakers on panel are off, including the feed circuit.

what am I doing wrong?
i understand that feeding the panel this way is only one leg of power so not all circuits will work

yes a transfer switch is what I need and should have installed already.
no I don’t have a welder cord to connect the 30 or 50 amp supply

need short term solution from the sparky’s please
 
Sounds like you don't know the difference in hot and neutral and the generators breaker is trying to keep you from killing someone. Check polarity of your cord. White to neutral/taller plug, black to shorter one/hot, and green to grounds.

If that's ok then the polarity is wrong at your receiptical or neutral is bonded to the wrong side in the genset. I believe you really should have the neutral and ground bond removed at the genset so it's only bonded in one place, at the panel.

Careful with what you're doing, you probably just sent full current down your ground wire.
 
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larboc said:
Sounds like you don't know the difference in hot and neutral and the generators breaker is trying to keep you from killing someone.
Click to expand...

This, did you wire your kill cord correctly?


What outlet are you attempting to use to power the house?
 
What are you referring to as transfer switch on the pole?

are you sure you have 120v on your suicide cord on the right prongs?

Is it wired right?

It sound like you got the cord wiring swapped

Oh, and you're going to kill a bus load of nuns

download.png
 
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ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Lol this man up and bypass the gfi.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's it.

I think he is feeding 120 through the neutral, probably to the whole neighborhood, or at least the dirt by his grounding rod, because that wire (the neutral) doesn't break through the circuit breaker.
 
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what purpose is the transfer switch serving if youre plugging into an outlet? You should be feeding the power into your box feed bus thru that transfer switch.

Operations-of-Transfer-Switch-2.jpg
 
grumpy356 said:
I think he is feeding 120 through the neutral, probably to the whole neighborhood, or at least the dirt by his grounding rod, because that wire (the neutral) doesn't break through the circuit breaker.
Click to expand...

Linemen hate him for this one weird trick.

:flipoff2:
 
Completely not my field, but when backfeeding aren't you supposed to use something along the lines of 10/4 wire?
 
larboc said:
Sounds like you don't know the difference in hot and neutral and the generators breaker is trying to keep you from killing someone. Check polarity of your cord. White to neutral/taller plug, black to shorter one/hot, and green to grounds.

If that's ok then the polarity is wrong at your receiptical or neutral is bonded to the wrong side in the genset. I believe you really should have the neutral and ground bond removed at the genset so it's only bonded in one place, at the panel.

Careful with what you're doing, you probably just sent full current down your ground wire.
Click to expand...

Trying to avoid killing those nuns hence the questions

I have read about the neutral and ground being bonded at the generator (so it meets osha right) and needing to remove them so the only place it is bonded is the panel

is that a good solution for this? Not sure where to even start on the generator panel though


Further info
there is one outlet I can plug the suicide cord into and not trip the genset breaker. It is a GFI outlet BUT I am somewhat wary because I think that circuit is an old dryer outlet and I vaguely remember when the contractor wired it he mentioned he had just used one leg of the power

not sure I am even remembering properly

when plugged in at this outlet the other outlet in showing 120. Have cheap HF meter so not even sure I can tell polarity. Shows 120v no matter which way the leads are
 
How much stuff are you trying to power with the generator? might be tripping the breaker because too much shit is trying to turn on when you plug in. Turn off everything and try again.
 
XtremeJ said:
Suicide cord. Green to green,black to black and white to white
Click to expand...

Many cords don't follow this code. It's always nice when you cut a cord and it does, but it's a cord, not home wring, and is not meant to be cut.

You gotta ohm it out to make sure right prong ohms true to right prong, etc.
 
If you can turn off power at the pole then disconnect wires running into your main and wire it in using welder wire. Yes, I know you said you don't have any but at that point then you quit before you burn your house down or kill every electrical device in your house.
 
Toreadorranger said:
This, did you wire your kill cord correctly?


What outlet are you attempting to use to power the house?
Click to expand...

Believe I wired it right. Green to green. Black to black. White to white

yes I know the wire is likely too small but is the largest cord I have available

have tried connecting to different 15a circuits. Microwave. Then tried generic kitchen outlets then tried garage outlets. Think they might all be GFI though only some have the test/reset buttons on the outlet themselves
 
XtremeJ said:
Believe I wired it right. Green to green. Black to black. White to white

yes I know the wire is likely too small but is the largest cord I have available

have tried connecting to different 15a circuits. Microwave. Then tried generic kitchen outlets then tried garage outlets. Think they might all be GFI though only some have the test/reset buttons on the outlet themselves
Click to expand...

You sure have a lot of unknowns to be rigging in the method you are. If you don't know what you're doing you should probably stop.
 
samy crawler said:
what purpose is the transfer switch serving if youre plugging into an outlet? You should be feeding the power into your box feed bus thru that transfer switch.
Click to expand...
Bad terminology on my part.

not transfer switch as in transfer from REA to Genset power. This is the breaker at the meter

so BOTH pole breaker and main panel breaker are off. Fairly certain I am not sending power back down the line at this point
 
booger said:
You sure have a lot of unknowns to be rigging in the method you are. If you don't know what you're doing you should probably stop.
Click to expand...

Not knocking the OP, but I'm with this guy.
 
XtremeJ said:
Bad terminology on my part.

not transfer switch as in transfer from REA to Genset power. This is the breaker at the meter

so BOTH pole breaker and main panel breaker are off. Fairly certain I am not sending power back down the line at this point
Click to expand...

except those breakers only break the hot side of the power. The ground and nuetral pass right thru so you can send power back down the line if something is backwards.
 
woods said:
Completely not my field, but when backfeeding aren't you supposed to use something along the lines of 10/4 wire?
Click to expand...

He's only feeding 110v, (One Hot, One Neutral) He won't have all his circuits live. It really is a a shitty way to do thing, but in an emergency, we do what we must.

and your reference to wire size is likely off. # 10 would typically good for a 30 amp circuit.
 
samy crawler said:
How much stuff are you trying to power with the generator? might be tripping the breaker because too much shit is trying to turn on when you plug in. Turn off everything and try again.
Click to expand...

No breakers are on at all at this point. So while I thought this might be the issue I don’t think so. Have also tried multiple outlet circuits just in case one was carrying a load I was unaware of
 
grumpy356 said:
He's only feeding 110v, (One Hot, One Neutral) He won't have all his circuits live. It really is a a shitty way to do thing, but in an emergency, we do what we must.

and your reference to wire size is likely off. # 10 would typically good for a 30 amp circuit.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. I think it was 10/4 which I use. Not sure. I forget. Could be wrong.
 
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