ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area The danger of using portable generators during a power outage...

Trumpy,
Ain't trying to start an argument here, bro, but you know yourself when you sectionalize a line (open up two ends and ground it out for you non-lineys) you are considered perfectly safe to bare hand. Even grounded though, if some twit in the middle pours line voltage back in, you will still find deadly voltages.

The way we were taught to ground years ago, was changed in the last 5 years for just that reason, but even that method is not bullet proof. I've worked "dead" lines with just leathers many times, but again back to the twit rule, just danged lucky it never happened.

These generators are sold for a lot of other purposes than power outages, so one cannot restrict their sale.
During this recent outage I was talking to a plumber on the job and he told me he used his generator to power his panel. He did not disconnect the main, he said he did not realize the danger. How many other people did the same?
One has to be careful working on any system, who knows who has been there before you?

Pierre

Trumpy and George Corron:

Are linemen ever permitted to work without gloves (not including those who "bond on" with those metal-threaded suits)?

A reading from a tester is valid at the time of the reading. If somebody switches on the generator after the lineman has tested and found no voltage...

ThinkGood,
Ya gotta remember, Trumpy and I are in different countries, AND were trained at different times. The old saying is "The only safe wire is one where you have both ends in your pocket"

We used to bare hand when we knew it was opened on both ends, and grounded. Most line companies have policies preventing this now, probably a good thing.

You can work any conductor hot from the right bucket bare handed with no problem, but ya can't forget where you are, or what you're doing, not even for one second, your head gets a little close to another phase, you're dead.

We used 40kv gloves on 34kv lines, if you had someone in the bucket with you, even gloved and sleeved, your keys would arc over to a rivet, or keys in the other guys jeans... used to be one of the initiation rights.

Short answer, not anymore. Most companies require linemen to even climb gloved and sleeved, and I don't know if I could do that or not. There is also the factor of the gloves don't bend well at all when cold, and in the summer, you have water running out of them making them slippery, some rules seem to cause a lot more problem than they cure.

Some companies require gloves and sleeves to climb, AND goggles. Climb a pole in August, 95 degrees, gloved and sleeved, with goggles on, on a high humidity day, now I can't grip the pole, but that's OK since I can't see how far I have to fall, and they wonder why my respect for safety departments seems to be a tad on the low side?????

Hope that comes close to answering your question. The first time I heard of this rule, a young lineman was in one of my classes, 24 years old, just had a daughter. He climbs to a transformer, took his right hand glove off so he could remove his goggles to wipe them so he could see. A fault occurred (possibly because of the wet glove) and killed him. The company denied his widow's claim for life insurance because her husband had violated their policy by being up the pole without all his safety equipment, of course they heard from me, but it did no good.

Kinda makes ya wanna go to plumbers school don't it?

Now for the "down under" version, Mike????

Due to the EPA controls, 2 cycle generators are now politically incorrect but not too long ago, low wattage 2 strokes were common. Use one in a campground and your neighbors would likely kill you over the noise. I think if they made the prices on transfer switches a lot more reasonable, more people would have them installed.

I have had many request for a generator install. I refuse to jury rig the set up and always suggest the proper transfer switch set up. Most homeowner joes are not aware of such a device. They get their advice from Dad's and Granddad's that has been handed down for years. (No offence!) When I explain the simple transfer and the advantages of a safe installation most people go for it.

Blessings, Mark

i seem to get a fair number of calls for them also. we get mostly ice in winter and with the blackout and world gas/oil situation i expect more will be calling.i doing such a job right now. i just bought a GE 200a 3r switch for $299 which aint bad. although to look at it you might think a fairer price would be $150. not much to it.