>>541774Idiots will wire these up to connect the generator into the house's electrical wiring.
Not only is it unsafe, it's also a violation of NEC, CEC, and sometimes downright criminalized in law.
It's called 'back feeding' and if done incorrectly it can kill you, your family, or a lineworker. Exactly as my neighbor found out about 8 years ago.
We had a storm come through around noon, straightine winds that reached about 70mph and knocked down a bunch of power lines. I'm sitting there that evening on the back porch eating a melting bucket of icecream watching a line worker up in a bucket. Neighbor comes home. drags out his generator. Takes an extension cord up the back stairs and into the house. Comes back out and starts up the generator. After it starts I watch him plug the cord in. A loud pop and a scream.
He was sentenced to 14 months in jail for involuntary manslaughter.
Said he'd done it dozens of times. Each time he remembered to shut off the mains supply. This time he forgot because he was in a hurry to get the freezer going after being off for 6 hours and he killed someone.
I've seen these widowmakers about 6 times on job sites, and customers houses. Each time I've made sure both ends were unplugged and taken out linesman cutters and cut both ends off. These things kill people and they should not exist.
If you want to connect your generator to your house there are units you can connect to your breaker box to do just that, which won't end up killing someone.
