Back feed? - ECN Electrical Forums

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The male end of a cordset was cut off going into this panel. I suspect a generator was used to feed the lower left 2 pole breaker since the black is stripped twice and isn't long enough to reach much else. Also found several breakers and neut's double lugged. Not a big deal but I thought it was kind of funny

KentVW

I consider this a big deal, I have a real problem with people that back feed panels with a generator.

Ask anyone of these people and they will tell you that they will never make a mistake and they will always turn off the service disconnect while they have the generator on line.

Well we are all human and make mistakes, a mistake made here may injury or kill a lineman while they are trying to fix the outage.

Well enough venting, Bob

Before we assume that was a backfeed- I must make a comment. I have somthing similar on my own panel in the basement, and what I do is when the power goes out, I pop the panel cover and connest the cords wires to my furnace, since it is the only appliance that I need that isn't cord-and-plug connected.

this kinda looks like a subpanel, with grounds on the neutral bars.... Nice cord grip by the way! [Linked Image]

Also, backfeeding both phases on one phase can allow shared neutrals to be overheated.. (Not that the extension cord here could carry enough current to do that though..)

-Randy

And to boot, I'm pretty sure that weather-proof receptacle cover is mounted sideways, the drip edge is now perpendicular to the earth... Could be a violation of 110.3(B).

-John

I've got to agree ( [Linked Image]

) with Bob.
A panel backfed this way is a big time hazard to linemen. ...S

If it is fed 110V to _both_ legs of the panel, then it doesn't present the high voltage hazard usually connected to a backfed panel...the voltage across the transformer secondary would be 0V....

Still ugly and a safety hazard, and I don't intend to defend this practise [Linked Image]

-Jon

As electricians, we may not agree 100% with what utilities require, but with a clear understanding of the very serious hazard backfeed can create for lineworkers, we should firmly support the prohibition of everything that has the potential of creating such a situation.

This means nothing but professionally installed, listed, lockable, externally-operable, visible-blade, center-off double-throw disconnect switches at the building meter location, and clearly rejecting any tin-can-grade breaker-handle “interlocks” intended for non-utility alternate-power sources.

[Backfeed attempts are also a top-flight way to fry generator sets.]