nanog mailing list archives
Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch
From: Chris Boyd <cboyd () gizmopartners com>
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2021 16:52:02 -0500
On Aug 25, 2021, at 1:30 PM, bzs () theworld com wrote: <OBLIGATORY FUNNY STORY> Except maybe that one guy at Harvard who came to replace what turned out to be a 100+ year old, home made, "breaker" which fed our machine room which was hidden in a narrow dark hallway winding around our machine room behind an unmarked metal, locked doorway. I had no idea it existed but we had no power so I called for help. It was just a single copper bar about the size of a small candy bar tensioned into hot clips. Probably 400A but who remembers. He removed the old one confidently enough, grabbed the new one with rubber-handled pliers and gloves and... Him: Have you ever played football? Me: Actually, yes, I have, why? Him: If something doesn't look right when I put this thing in just tackle me clear of it as hard and as fast as you can. Me: Um, ok. It all worked out fine and I wrote a memo that maybe Harvard could spring for a proper $500 breaker box? </OBLIGATORY FUNNY STORY>
When I was working at the MCI training facility in 1994, I went into the power facility classroom where they had battery strings, rectifiers, transfer switches, etc for students to learn on. I noticed that every 8-10 feet there was an 8 foot long 3/4 inch PVC pipe with about 16 feet of rope threaded through it. When I asked what those were for, the instructor said “We will use those to pull people off the electricity in case anyone gets shocked.” I never heard that they were used, so that’s good. —Chris
Current thread:
- Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Sean Donelan (Aug 23)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mark Tinka (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Ethan O'Toole (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mark Tinka (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Ethan O'Toole (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mark Tinka (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch bzs (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mel Beckman (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Warren Kumari (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mark Tinka (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Chris Boyd (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mark Tinka (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Ethan O'Toole (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mark Tinka (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Lady Benjamin Cannon of Glencoe, ASCE (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Haudy Kazemi via NANOG (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mark Tinka (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Jared Mauch (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mark Tinka (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Dave (Aug 25)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Lamar Owen (Aug 30)
- Re: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch Mark Tinka (Aug 30)
- RE: Reminder: Never connect a generator to home wiring without transfer switch John van Oppen (Aug 30)