It's interesting - there are some comments that have the same basic thread:
As I am an electrician and know what I am doing it's OK to go ahead and attach the generator in an electrically equivalent manner to a coded installation, just so long as I am aware of the risks and am in control of the situation. Is that the key here?
I have thought a lot about this problem and have decided that there is no straight forward solution.
Depending on the situation John Doe may be completely justified in hooking (in a code incompliant way) his generator to the residence - of course he may not, it would depend on the severity of the need and the situation. Also is John Doe any different from a regular electrician when out of need both backfeed the dryer outlet and both get the wiring correct but code is absent?
In it of itself the requirement of a code compliant installation in every situation is absurd simply because it may not be possible to implement. Thus the blanket statement that generator hookups should only be done by a electrician is just that, a statement. It supposes a perfect world where all eventualities are foreseen by all people and assumes they have limitless resourcs. The reality is of course that some have transfer switches etc and the rest make do. Some of those making do resort to jerry-rigging (electricians included) something so that "it's working for now", rightly or wrongly that's the reality.
In general I have left the risk taking up to those who take risks but when asked I provide a schematic avaliable at:
http://www.schneider-electric.ca/www/en/products/stab-lok/Gen_Panels_Appl_Note_EN.pdf It explains diagramitically what is correct and what is not but does not focus on the technical aspects of the code - my assumption is that if you need this you are not an electrician anyway.
One other thing - and I am not dismissing this risk by any means - do any of you have independently verifiable accounts (press or in journals etc) of linemen getting injured / killed as a result of this. As a statistician I tend to think that the real number of lineman / utility worker incidents associated with this phenomenon (backfeeding the grid) is actually much less than we think or like to suppose. I would like to get a handle on what the real extent of that threat is. (A bit like how people think that the likelyhood of having a child accidentially killed by a gun in the house is very high when in actual fact you are several times more likely to have a child drown in your neighbours pool or a bucket of water in the laundry, it's just that the gun is a much more obvious and ominous threat.) Comments welcome.
