Forbidden Tech
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I don't understand why it would have female on both ends?
Weird use case. Never underestimate the customer.
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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?).
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What if I yell "no homo!" when I plug it in?
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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.
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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.
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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).
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This is 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.
If you don't know what you're doing, don't fool with electricity
The problem is that people read a few things on the internet, think they're now suddenly domain experts, and do it anyway.
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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.
Seems like the power companies should be responsible for either checking there is no back feeding or provide those things for everyone then. (I'm still not advocating for you back feeding your home)
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I don't understand why it would have female on both ends?
Yeah. Makes no fucking sense
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Seems like the power companies should be responsible for either checking there is no back feeding or provide those things for everyone then. (I'm still not advocating for you back feeding your home)
You can't check for back feeding.
Cable coming from house to pole has no power. Electrician goes to hook up wire. Homeowner puts on generator. Electrician gets electrocuted.
Yes the testing and hooking up could be a small window of time but a fraction of a second after testing is all it takes.
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What would they even be used for except to short a circuit?
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 problem is that people read a few things on the internet, think they're now suddenly domain experts, and do it anyway.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Oh I know.
I've talked to them.
Don't do it. If you haven't actually worked with an electrician for at least two or.three years, just leave the repairs and shit jobs for people like me.
If you can't explain why the white wire is incorrectly called a neutral in single-phase systems, don't touch it.
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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.
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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.
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Seems like the power companies should be responsible for either checking there is no back feeding or provide those things for everyone then. (I'm still not advocating for you back feeding your home)
You'd have to constantly test. Just because a lines worker tested that the line is dead five seconds ago doesn't mean some idiot just plugged one of these in.
They can work, you just need to disconnect your house first then use it. It's also a good way to burn your house down. If something on the same circuit as the generator pulls more current than the wires in the walls are designed to take, because there's no breaker in the way anymore it can catch fire.
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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
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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.
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I sell so many of these around Xmas time, I just make them myself with scissors and electric tape.
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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).
I appreciate a good "um actually" but this really is about Christmas lights. People really are stupid enough for this to be something posted specifically around December.
As far as I can tell from a reverse image search this is the original. (Not linking to the other place, DM me if you want the link for some reason).
