RV to power home temp
Does anyone use their rv to power their house during power outages?
Forum Discussion
Gundog wrote:wvabeer wrote:
I was hoping to back feed my house thru the shore power cord by killing the main power flip a switch in the motor home (separate transfer switch) and run a few items till power is restored. Maybe ad a twist lock at two points within the transfer switch, one at incoming power and other main gen power connecting to the cord depending which mode I'll be in.
Please don't. Use a transfer switch designed for this application do not trust your main breaker as a disconnect to the utility. I am a retired journeyman lineman and this can kill utility workers. I can't tell you how many failed main breakers I have seen.
If you back feed into the utility the 120/240 volt service feeding your house comes from a transformer that converts primary high voltage at the transformer to the 120/240 volts for your house. If you back feed into the transformer you create primary high voltage through the transformer. The transformer is a simple device feed high voltage in the top it makes secondary voltage out the bottom feeding your house feed secondary voltage into the transformer and it makes high primary voltage out.
Not just utility workers are at risk lets say you have a wire down on your street or 2 streets over and you back feed through your service and the neighbor kid moves the wire so he can play and dies or is maimed guess who is at fault or maybe the downed line starts a house fire etc. I know of one lineman personally that got killed by an illegal hooked up generator in Mariposa, CA and their have been more many more.
It doe not matter if your home is fed underground or overhead the threat is the same.
Best case scenario is the utility worker grounds the primary line and smokes your generator. Do NOT TRUST YOUR MAIN BREAKER TO BE A DISCONNECT TO THE UTILITY. A proper transfer switch is a break before make device that gives a physical separation to the utility service.
And even with turning off the main, will
It not still back feed on the neutral side? I thought I read that somewhere!
