ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area I feel sorry,

E57,

Sorry I buried it so far down as to make it unclear:


I totally agree that this system is not acceptable. But it dangerous in the same way that driving with a BAC of 0.2 is dangerous; you will _probably_ get home just fine, but the chances that you will kill yourself or someone else are so much greater than 'baseline' that the danger is unacceptable and illegal.

-Jon

Thank you Mark. I do agree that somehow, someway this guys must be stopped. I've reported him to eBay, and e-Mailed him. This guy can be an idiotic murderer, and he wouldn't even know it.

Ian A.

Having a device like this being sold on a public website like EBay, sets a whole new precedence.
As has been mentioned above, these devices and others like them can and have killed line-workers in the past.
To blame a line-worker for thier in-attention during an outage, for some idiot down the road, is just stupidity in itself.
That "idiot-stick" that someone referred to above, is a one shot test, current at the time that it was performed.
While the HV side should always be Earthed while being worked upon, exactly how do you do that when you have a whole set of poles and lines lying on the ground?.
IMHO, if you want to use a genny on permanently installed wiring, get a transfer switch.
The thing that would concern me most would be if the CB on the genny was bypassed because it couldn't deliver the expected current.

Explain to my co-workers wife, why a guy needed heat and A/C while my mate died from a back-feed??.
I go with NORCAL's idea.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 01-12-2006).]

I suppose someone might use a 2 way switch (SPDT) light switch to transfer an individual load (like a fridge) from POCO supplied power via the usual circuit breaker panel to power supplied by a local generator via some form of over current protection. The switch's center contact is the load, one end the POCO and other end the generator. Probably not code, as such switches are not specifically designed or listed for such service (and might fail POCO shorted to genrator). And thus not trustworthy enough to protect linesmen.

He's at it again.. 6028694154

here's the link to complain..
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=InlineSelfHelpWebform&wftype=2023&rcode=BN%25P10305&subject=Encouraging%20Illegal%20Activity&bcrumb=%20eBay%20Policies%20% 3E%20Prohibited%20and%20Restricted%20Items%20%20Encouraging%20Illegal%20Activity

[This message has been edited by techie (edited 01-12-2006).]

Even Lowes' website says NOT to plug it into a wall outlet:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=BuyGuide/SelectGenerator.html#4
Click on Safety Considerations.

Ian A.



[This message has been edited by Theelectrikid (edited 01-14-2006).]

I found a link where unsafe items can be reported to the CPSC...

https://www.cpsc.gov/incident.html

I'm curious if there is something they can do with this...

FYI Also... DO you think we had something to do with this guy changing his "warning" on his page???

Ebays suicide cord


now reads


I think he's just trying to pad his disclaimer with what we've written him

The bad thing is, a lot of innocent people viewing this will probably have to hit the dictionary for the term "Lineman."

Ian A.

Well whadaya know!
"The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale."

I wonder if he will re-list. I know I'll be keeping tabs.

*typo*

[This message has been edited by Speedy Petey (edited 01-15-2006).]