Submitted 3 days ago by Richat@lemmy.ml to [deleted]
https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/ec4333e0-1ce7-4b59-adde-185e43747d61.jpeg
I have heard there are ways to use these to back feed power from a generator into a house’s system, at least on one breaker, but by definition that bypasses the breaker panel, and the only safe way to use your generator for your house is with a proper cutover installed by an electrician. I can think of literally no other use for one of these cords, except maybe fixing your fuck up if you install Christmas lights backwards.
So yeah, dumb, dumb idea.
Thief I’d all reasonably accurate. Source: electrician, who worked at a supply store for a while. I’ve had people ask how to make all kinds of stupid cords.
The problem is that people read a few things on the internet, think they’re now suddenly domain experts, and do it anyway.
Unionized Kobold electricians. Hmm.
It also backfeeds the grid and can kill someone working on the lines.
This is the real issue and why you need a modern transfer switch.
My friend’s house does this with their generator. There is a lockout on the breaker, and the main must be off to move it and open the one that feeds the back porch where they tie the generator in. Once the breakers are cycled, they can plug the generator into the outlet on the porch, and it runs there, sheltered from the weather. When the main power is working again, they turn off the generator, remove the cord, disable the breaker, toggle the lockout bar, and turn the main back on. The particular outlet on the porch is useless when using grid power because of this setup.
So if it’s only for the generator, why is it wired as an outlet, not an inlet?
I’ve heard the Christmas lights one before too, but I never got it. How do (American) Christmas lights work that you’d need one of these cords?
In North America, Christmas lights usually have a plug end and a socket end so you can connect multiple strings together in series.
If you accidentally put the plug end at the top of the tree, it might be tempting to try to buy or make one of these cords so you don’t have to take the lights down and redo them.
It is as dumb and lazy as it sounds.
There are voltage converters (230V<->120V) that have female connectors in both ends. So if DIY guys are playing with tech from other continents.
Any serious DIY person can just splice an extra male plug onto a cord faster than driving to the store and reading this sign.
I don’t understand why it would have female on both ends?
What if I yell “no homo!” when I plug it in?
where are you plugging it in?
I mean, there’s only one place for double-headed items to be safely used and it isn’t in the workshop.
No idea how and why but my dad once had a cable like that in his workshop.
Short story: we were having a party bit drunk and wanted power for the bigger speakers, needed an extension, rummaged around and found this one. Of course didn’t check the ends, plugged it in and then thought “oh what a weird male adapter there, lets take it…bzzzzt”.
Have a tiny burn scar on my hand now, luckily nothing else happened. The cable got dismantled afterwards, but I still don’t know why it was there in the first place, he is a pretty good handyman normally.
If you lose power, you can use one of these cables to power your house (or at least, the part of your house on that phase).
This is not how you should do this, but it can work. It is not a good idea (possibly illegal?).
In my jurisdiction, backfeeding your house from a receptacle is very illegal. Transfer switches and interlock kits exist for a reason.
For anyone wondering exactly why it’s a bad idea: Power from your generator can, if your house isn’t isolated from the grid, travel back into the utility lines and backward through the big transformer at the utility pole (so now it’s a few thousand volts again) and give an unsuspecting linesman a nasty surprise. People have died from this. It is a bad idea.
It is written in the book of Leviticus: “It shall be unclean for one end of an electric cord to match the other”
Holy shit, this is what that part in the bible is actually about. People back then just didn’t know about electricity so they thought it was about gay people.
honestly tho. if the Torah is legit its advice should apply to the future too. haShem wouldn’t just have been writing to Moishe’s time.
My granpa once assigned a master electrician to make an extension cord after he accidently cut the cable of his hedge trimmer. The electrician built him a male2male cord with the female part on the machine. My granpa almost got electrocuted. 🤦♂️
Sorry, what is “this time of the year”? Suicide September?
People use them to make their generators power their homes, by adding power into an outlet.
So, whatever time of year power outages are likely to happen in this area.
Holy shit, does that work?
I’m only familiar with having a generator properly wired into the house system at the panel, not some electrical Uno Reverse.
I’m gonna guess winter, hanging Christmas lights. People string up their lights and then realize far too late that they put two strands with female ends facing each other and instead of restringing they look for a male-to-male cord to bridge the gap.
A little live wire shouldn’t stand in the way of holiday cheer, after all.
That would immediately blow the fuse in the lights and/or start a fire if the two strands were on different circuits that happened to be on different electrical phases.
While I wouldn’t doubt that some people are stupid enough to do that, it’s actually summer that it’s done the most for because of storms and power outages, and people learn that backfeeding is a thing (that you shouldn’t do unless you absolutely know what you’re doing).
A former coworker was abroad most of the time. Still, his power meter showed lots of usage during his absence. A tenant in the same house had used such a cord to leech power across the common laundry room.
Now that coworker knew his way about electricity. So instead of the 220V between common and a phase, he rewired his washing machine socket to two different phases, aka 380V, and left for a week.
When he came back, he saw a number of kitchen- and other appliances waiting for trash collection.
3 phase going to a house?
Absolutely normal here. Three phases, now 400 instead of 380V back then, 64A. Standard house connection.
“this time of year” is 100% christmas.
from people putting up lights, probably trying to run remote power to a box with an extension cord, or because they installed half their lights backward and need this to bridge between the two sets because they rather embrace the danger than redo all the work.
Take it down, darwin demands sacrifice, lest we be riddled with stupidity.
Except that sometimes, those idiots could take people down with them. That electrical fire might spread to another house, and the person getting electrocuted might not be the idiot.
Imagine I’m making the most exasperated, annoyed, disapponted noise possible.
He didn’t take it to the store and tape it to the shelf so it could NOT be there
K
I sell so many of these around Xmas time, I just make them myself with scissors and electric tape.
What would they even be used for except to short a circuit?
Some genius won’t pay attention to the orientation of a christmas light display while he’s putting them up, he’ll go to plug them in, and they’ll be the wrong way, so he’ll want an “adapter.”
I will just regurgitate what I’ve heard. I think they are used in case power goes out and you have a generator. You need to disconnect from the power grid first, but it should then allow you to power tour house with the generator. It sounds more like a US thing.
Yes, this would technically work. Although, it would only power the hot leg the outlet is connected to which only feeds part of the house.
It’s very dangerous for a variety of reasons. Especially if you forget to shut off the mains breaker. The transformer can backfeed power down the line at line voltages, creating a shock hazard for lineman or anyone else who might have contact with the line.
Connecting this to two plugs on the same circuit won’t short anything unless one of the outlets is wired incorrectly.
They’re used to backfeed power to your house from a generator during power outages. Technically not legal to use, but most people aren’t going to pay $1k for a proper transfer switch. They come with the caveat of ‘not to be operated by fuckwits’ since you can kill a linesman if you don’t flip your main breaker before using them.
The only time I’ve ever seen one in use was a friend that had a shed that was powered with lights etc. He had an external plug box on the shed, and would use one of these to jumper from his extension cord to that external plug. It worked, but I shuddered when I saw it.
… and you could easily fix the whole situation by having the shed run a male extension cord out that could be plugged into the generator.
It would also be infinitely more whimsical, since it’d make the shed look like a little appliance with its own chord. Or paint everything and call it a tail, the possibilities are endless.
“Well, let me just plug in the shed real quick”
I saw an electrician use one for troubleshooting. Half the outlets in the house were in serial on the same circuit, and there was a break. He turned off the breaker for it and backfed power from a live circuit to see if there were any more breaks further away.
No gay cords allowed!
The gay cords are extra powerful in Europe with a spicy 230v
1 European gay is equivalent to 1.83 american gays
It’s OK - I’m only going to use the suicide cord for my fractal wood-burning project.
Well at that point all you need to do is cut a normal extension cord and strip the ends. Maybe add a switch or a button for extra safety.
So what you are telling me is that I can just make one at home?
Yes, but only once.
yeah, that’s some counter-productive signage.
like getting on a bus and seeing:
please don’t
Titty squeezy
No.
Why not have the meters detect and control a disconnect. with all the solar generation around, someone’s gotta have a bad transfer switch somewhere.
Reaction time
In the US, using a cord like this will either be harmless or create effectively a dead short. Typical breakers will catch the latter but it will take tenths of a second for a breaker to react in which time the electricity could kill someone.
Depending on circuit conditions a GFCI might intervene as well, they’re typically faster at reacting (needing a few milliseconds) but for a cable designed to handle full residential power, it’s still enough to kill a person in that small window of time
except american standards mandate GFCI only in bathrooms, so you’ll get cooked before anything trips
Arc-fault breakers are required by code as of now, and it would help this situation quote a bit. However millions of homes don’t have them installed so they’re more at risk.
Most of eastern Europe do this and somehow linesmen don’t get killed. I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do but come on, guys, you have to adapt. If your government is shit.
Can’t adapt if I can’t get my suicide adapter.
Joke’s on them I can make one myself
But the paper said you shouldn’t
This shit post is shit
Task failed successfully
I have a 50’ (15.25 m) extension cord on a wind-up reel. It has a separate 10’ (3m) cord from the reel hub, to plug into the wall outlet.
All I want is a way to plug it into the wall and be able to unreel it as I work, without that 10’ section getting all twisted. Kind of like a phone cord detangler (pic below), or the brake cable detangler/gyro on BMX stunt bikes.
I was trying to think of a way to make one but apparently it’s a “dangerous fire hazard” or whatever.
Get a regular extension cord, find the mid-point, and feed it through the rollerdrum or duct-tape it on. Roll the cord onto the drum such that both ends are being rolled in the same direction. When finished, you will have a male and female connector readily available from the end of the drum, and uncoiling it will give you an equal length of both sides.
rektstarsceosu@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
Image