On 4 Aug 2006 at 15:22, David C Robie wrote:
I feed power into both legs of my 220 using the 220V
30A electric dryer and EV charge outlet in my garage.
This practice is pretty dangerous for a multitude of reasons. Not only
will
I not do it myself, I would never recommend it to anybody in a public
forum.
I hope you don't have kids or a spouse who might try to use this stuff
while
you're away, or that you never get distracted while trying to hook it up
and
get it going. That's when disasters happen. People using jerry-rigs like
this have ended up backfeeding the grid and electrocuting linemen.
They've
had their inverters or gensets literally explode because they accidentally
left the main on when the grid came up. They've had the feed plug come
out
and some kid or pet wandered along and touched those live male pins.
Besides, it's unnecessary. Square D makes a nice, simple, reasonably
priced
changeover device. It's a 60 amp subpanel with a mechanical lockout that
allows only one feed breaker (from the line or from a genset or inverter)
to
be on at one time. Some models have a built in MALE plug so you can plug
in
an extension cord from your inverter or genset, or you can add one easily.
I've seen them (without plug) at Lowe's for under $100. You can sometimes
find them on Ebay for half that amount. Well worth it.
For similar prices you can get cheapo Chinese changeover switches at the
big
box stores, though I prefer the Square D panel.
Not to preach, but I *really* recommend avoiding this kind of hack job.
You're playing with fire, literally, with this stuff. Doing it safely is
not that much more work or time, and it could save a life.
David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA
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