Heard about it my whole life …seen it done during many hurricanes growing up …BUT …I always wondered …and I still wonder…
If the grid is on and the power lines ( high voltage ) on the road, is supplying power to the houses that is stepped down at the power poles transformer to be usable ( lower voltage ) by the house …
Let’s say it’s thousands of volts stepped down by the transformer to a couple of hundred volts ..
Ok , now a hurricane hits and knocks out the power..
So Mr home owner hooks the 240 outlet of his generator to the main inputs ( coming from the street) on the outside house disconnect feeding the house breaker panel…
He now has 240 coming in side an everyone is happy … but he also has no transfer switch or safty device to isolate his wiring from the street…
But … while he is powering his house , to my understanding he is also feeding the power back to the power line…back to where the linemen may be working ….
The power coming in to the house through the transformer was STEPPED DOWN when coming in before the hurricane…
When it is back feeding from the gen set , does it STEP UP the voltage back up OR send it back down the street at the 240 v being generated by the genset…?
Does the transformer work both directions…?
So does the lineman worker see a high voltage back feed…? or the 240v the gen set is producing…?
Probably a dumb question ,…but it pops up in my mind now and then.
Thanks J.
.
If the grid is on and the power lines ( high voltage ) on the road, is supplying power to the houses that is stepped down at the power poles transformer to be usable ( lower voltage ) by the house …
Let’s say it’s thousands of volts stepped down by the transformer to a couple of hundred volts ..
Ok , now a hurricane hits and knocks out the power..
So Mr home owner hooks the 240 outlet of his generator to the main inputs ( coming from the street) on the outside house disconnect feeding the house breaker panel…
He now has 240 coming in side an everyone is happy … but he also has no transfer switch or safty device to isolate his wiring from the street…
But … while he is powering his house , to my understanding he is also feeding the power back to the power line…back to where the linemen may be working ….
The power coming in to the house through the transformer was STEPPED DOWN when coming in before the hurricane…
When it is back feeding from the gen set , does it STEP UP the voltage back up OR send it back down the street at the 240 v being generated by the genset…?
Does the transformer work both directions…?
So does the lineman worker see a high voltage back feed…? or the 240v the gen set is producing…?
Probably a dumb question ,…but it pops up in my mind now and then.
Thanks J.
.