On 7 Mar 2016 at 14:36, Jan Steinman via EV wrote: > Y'mean like the cord and plug I wired to go into the dryer outlet¦ with a > 15 kW generator on the other end? :-)
OK, now THAT'S a hazard. I'm pretty middle of the road on electrical safety - not careless, but not a nervous nellie either. I've had plenty of shocks, and as far as I can tell they've only affected my brain, which I rarely need anyway. :-\ Still, I really try to be careful with stuff that can kill me (or someone else) if I do it wrong. And with this, you have to do everything right, and in the right order, and every piece has to work right, or really bad things can happen. Chances are that 99.99% of the time it'll all go fine. It's what can happen that 0.01% of the time that bothers me. If something went wrong with the main breaker and it didn't open (it happens, though not often), or I got confused or distracted, it's bad enough that I could fry my inverter or start a fire when the power came back on. It's much worse that I could electrocute some lineman trying to get the power back on (or knock him off the pole or ladder with a shock). The other thing that I wouldn't want to use is that double-male cable. (I've heard people call these "suicide cords." I call them "sticks sharpened at both ends.") Don't keep it with the extension cords! It's not just me, though I know I can be pretty disoriented when I'm half asleep. If Margaret called me when I was away, asking how to get the power back on or put the house back on the mains, would I be able to get every step right to talk her through it without being there? I use a Square D subpanel. It has two main breakers interlocked by a steel lever, so only one breaker can be on at a time. You feed one breaker from the mains, the other with your backup power. Anybody can use it safely, even in a dark cellar. It cost me less than $100 and was definitely worth it for the peace of mind. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great idea to use your EV (or a batch of former EV batteries) for household backup power. But if it doesn't cost much or take much effort to do it right, why do a hack job with a stick sharpened at both ends? David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
