dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
14
Zach
Premium Member
join:2006-11-26
Llano, CA

Zach to flibby3655

Premium Member

to flibby3655

Re: Upgrade/Replace Electric Panel

said by flibby3655:

Wow, that's right in my backyard. Thanks! I'll give them a call on Monday. My BIL has a contractors license, should help!

I just noticed you stated you need an outdoor panel. The Siemens site lists an outdoor version (NEMA type 3R) but it will be considerably more expensive than the indoor version. I've not used a type 3R so I don't have any pricing and my normal Siemens distributor doesn't list pricing either. Just a heads-up.

flibby3655
MAGA
Premium Member
join:2004-12-19
Lompoc, CA
ARRIS SB6141

flibby3655

Premium Member

Thanks to all who replied... I want to do it right.

So here we go... Not wanting to start a who is right and who is wrong debate...

I spoke to the supervisor of our local power utility. He said you would have to have a 5KV generator back fed into your house to injure a lineman upstream assuming you did not trip the main breaker. He also stated that any small genny would trip its breakers or just plain die if it was back fed through your house if you did not trip the main breaker.

Also when asked about the Pushmatic panel and lack of choices to use a genny. As long as the main is tripped they are fine about back feeding. They always ground the line they are working on.

Please, don't shoot the messenger, just repeating what I was told.

PSWired
join:2006-03-26
Annapolis, MD

PSWired

Member

While all that is true in most cases, it's not enough to address "most cases" when working at kilovolt levels. People get killed when there are simultaneous unexpected problems.

Say your house is the only load at the end of a distribution spur. The fuse upstream of a fault blows, leaving your house connected to the spur, but without a connection to the rest of the distribution circuit. You've got your generator backfeeding the panel with the main off, but you've been turning the main on every so often to see if the utility's come back. This most recent time you checked was in the middle of the night, and being groggy you forgot to turn it back off.

Line crew rolls in later that night, sees the fault, looks over at your house, sees no lights on, and in a hurry the lineman just reaches over to pull the fallen branch that's causing the fault off the line. Boom, lineman's dead.

They're *supposed* to ground the circuit, the insulating gloves are never *supposed* to have holes in them, the pole grounding conductores are *supposed* to not have been stolen by thieves, etc. etc. etc.

Most recent outage I had at work, the crew was working on the 13.6 kV lines feeding our building without grounding them out or using their gloves. They were depending on our ATS working properly to keep them alive.

nunya
LXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO

nunya to flibby3655

MVM

to flibby3655
The supervisor was actually wrong, and that is very unfortunate.

An interlock device (manual or automatic) is required by code anyway, so it's a moot point.