Inexpericense will get you KILLED

[Richard L. Bennett]

What I do not understand is that hooking a generator into a home is so easy and can done properly

Good find

I would have been tempted to short out the plug with a large screw driver

I love sparks

rlb

[dcook1]

I was on an inspection about a year ago. I walked around the back of the house and the pipes wer still out of the wall where the AC unit had been connected. The wire was still hanging out of the panel and two inches of bare copper on all three wires that were bent away from each other. As I went into my tool bag for my tester the purchasers son ran around the corner and right for the wires. I grabbed the kid right in front of his parents and he started screaming. The woman freaked on me for touching her kid and I said I would do it again if I felt the situation warranted it and to watch as I tested the wires. My tester started to flash and she asked what the flashing meant. I told her it was 220 volts and I just saved her kids life. At that point the agent called the sellers agent and told her what happened and her sellers had created a death trap for an unwary person.
I advised everyone that I was turning the breaker off and told the agent that the the sellers needed to get an electrician to remedy this asap.
About an hour after the inspection it hit me how close someone had come to dying.
The sellers called me the next day stating the electrician told them I had wasted their money, the only needed to turn the breaker off, and I should be paying for a service call. I told them they should call the ESA and ask their opinion and be happy I had not called the ESA as they would have turned the power off to their house. I also told them if I had not reacted as quickly they would be paying for a small kids funeral and facing a lawsuit and or facing criminal charges. They hung up and I never heard from them again.
Right now I am in a bit of a pissing contest with one builder (houses start at $647,000). I finally told them I would call the ESA and come to my next house with an ESA inspector, as every house I have looked at so far has had stupid stuff wrong with electrical. Stuff like 10guage, 220 wires hanging out rear windows, just wrapped in a loop. Live. They advised as long as the marrets are on the wire ends, it is safe. I cannot figure out if the branch wires are holding the furnace ductwork up or vice versa. Almost half the GFI were wired wrong in one house. And not one panel has been labelled,,, Electrical code failure right there.
And then the insulation in the attic is atrocious. The representaive told me the site supervisor had checked the insulation and said it was good, that I am making things up. I sent her the pictures. She told me this would be repaired asap.
AHHHHH the fun of home inspections.

[gporter]

I wish I have kept a photo of the one that was done correctly They had a separte breaker box for everything when the house was on generator. The wife was an office manager for Square D. Got it for pennies she said.

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by bking

The bottom left breaker looks like the generator input point.
The cable shown in the picture most likely goes into the wall under the pictured area and into that breaker.

A 30 amp female outlet is needed in the wall to obtain a "poor mans generator hookup" not a long hot cable.

When the feed from the generator goes directly into the main panel without having a proper generator panel with a power transfer switch, there's no such thing as a "poor man's generator hookup", only a stupid man's generator hookup!!!

[William J. Decker]

Originally Posted by dcook1

I was on an inspection about a year ago. I walked around the back of the house and the pipes wer still out of the wall where the AC unit had been connected. The wire was still hanging out of the panel and two inches of bare copper on all three wires that were bent away from each other. As I went into my tool bag for my tester the purchasers son ran around the corner and right for the wires. I grabbed the kid right in front of his parents and he started screaming. The woman freaked on me for touching her kid and I said I would do it again if I felt the situation warranted it and to watch as I tested the wires. My tester started to flash and she asked what the flashing meant. I told her it was 220 volts and I just saved her kids life. At that point the agent called the sellers agent and told her what happened and her sellers had created a death trap for an unwary person.
I advised everyone that I was turning the breaker off and told the agent that the the sellers needed to get an electrician to remedy this asap.
About an hour after the inspection it hit me how close someone had come to dying.
The sellers called me the next day stating the electrician told them I had wasted their money, the only needed to turn the breaker off, and I should be paying for a service call. I told them they should call the ESA and ask their opinion and be happy I had not called the ESA as they would have turned the power off to their house. I also told them if I had not reacted as quickly they would be paying for a small kids funeral and facing a lawsuit and or facing criminal charges. They hung up and I never heard from them again.
Right now I am in a bit of a pissing contest with one builder (houses start at $647,000). I finally told them I would call the ESA and come to my next house with an ESA inspector, as every house I have looked at so far has had stupid stuff wrong with electrical. Stuff like 10guage, 220 wires hanging out rear windows, just wrapped in a loop. Live. They advised as long as the marrets are on the wire ends, it is safe. I cannot figure out if the branch wires are holding the furnace ductwork up or vice versa. Almost half the GFI were wired wrong in one house. And not one panel has been labelled,,, Electrical code failure right there.
And then the insulation in the attic is atrocious. The representaive told me the site supervisor had checked the insulation and said it was good, that I am making things up. I sent her the pictures. She told me this would be repaired asap.
AHHHHH the fun of home inspections.

You did GOOOOd, Dave. This can be a thankless job, but KNOW that you did good.

You saved a life.

You know and I know and many others, as well.

Life ain't always fair, but He sees all.

Can hear hom saying, just about now.

"Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Listen. Can you hear.


I hope so.

[Bob Elliott]

David what was the end result with the buyer.
Did she thank you later?

[msylvester]

Same thing here.

[rromoser]

Is there a isolation switch to prevent backfeeding to the utility when the generator is online? The linemen sure don't appreciate voltage on their "dead" line. It needs to break all current carrying conductors including the "neutral"

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by rromoser

Is there a isolation switch to prevent backfeeding to the utility when the generator is online? The linemen sure don't appreciate voltage on their "dead" line. It needs to break all current carrying conductors including the "neutral"

There are "generator panels" with a built in safety "line transfer switch" and made specifically to be separate from the main panel. You move to this panel all the important circuits that you wish to power by generator when the uility lines are out

In normal times, this panel is fed from a main panel breaker through its own integral triple pole breaker which includes and switches the neutral also as the third conductor. In power outages, it's fed through another integral triple pole breaker from the generator. But both triple pole breakers are linked in an either/or setup- if you're feeding from the panel, the generator breakers are "off" and when you close the triple pole breakers to get power from from the generator , the breakers serving the feed from the main panel are now "off" so no current can flow from the generator out to the utility lines. Either one feed or the other is supplying the selected circuits in the generator panel.

[Richard L. Bennett]

Not too many years ago it was a knife switch

Now it is a few relays and some logic

In any case to do it right is not a big deal

Again as inspectors if we see it done wrong call it out and if a kid gets pulled away by his ear too bad


rlb