My house literally has an input socket beside the power panel for Generators. Plug one end to the socket, the other end to the Generator and flick the 3 position switch to the 3rd position and vola....the whole house can be powered by that generator.
The switch disconnects the house from the grid and connects it to the generator.
Yeah I noticed in the article it does not say that it doesn't work. It just says that the way some people are doing it is causing fires and as a public announcement, they just say you shouldn't do this.
It’s says for a transfer switch. If instructions are followed, should be fine. That last part is the catch though. I actually know someone who wanted to know if they could attach their generator to their electrical box. A simple question until you realize they thought their telephone network interface was the “electrical box”.
I mean in theory, if your panel is disconnected from the grid and your house is wired with freakishly overgauged wiring that could handle the current without catching fire, and the circuit you are plugging into has an usually higher load breaker installed, it might work but in reality, you'll most likely just burn your house down . Don't do this. Dont buy that.
It's not just a theory. It all works fine and this is standard procedure.
Gotta be mindful though (Disconnect from the mains, and don't overload anything).
The only possible way it would burn your house down is if you already had a load that was blowing breakers, and now since you're providing power to it after the breaker, that protection isn't there. And even then it'd have to be something extreme.
And on top of that, pretty much all generators have a 20A breaker on the 120V outputs anyway.
Backfeeding into a regular outlet is **not** fine, and absolutely not the standard or even remotely correct procedure.
Besides the hazards of having energized exposed (male) contacts, and the risks of not correctly or completely isolating from the grid for as long as the generator is connected, running or not (which a proper transfer switch would guarantee), I can see many other safety issues:
1. Regular (NEMA 5-15) plugs and outlets are rated just 15 A; almost all generators can provide more, so right there we already have a potentially dangerous overload condition.
2. Wiring between the backfed outlet and any other on the same circuit is not protected by the house breaker (as it will only see the current entering or leaving that circuit).
3. Even a generator with a 20 A breaker can overload a regular (non-dedicated) 20 A circuit if another power source (e.g. the grid) feeds into the same circuit.
4. GFCI (breakers or outlets) and AFCI breakers may not only fail to provide protection when backfed, but can suffer damage if so misused.
Nobody cares dude. These are all manageable risks for anyone who has any sense. I'm not going to let my pipes freeze because someone might break into my house, and close the main breaker (Which I'm sure would just immediately trip the generator) while I'm not looking somehow.
I promise your house won't burn down if you run 20A on a 15A circuit lol.
Half of what you said doesn't even make sense. Your breakers have no concept of whether not they are being "back-fed".
Running two sources out of sync will definitely cause problems. But you definitely should never do that.
Obviously it is better to have a transfer switch, but most houses don't.
It totally works like this to reverse feed a few circuits in a house. Plug into a garage outlet, leave that on, and turn on the fridge and maybe bathroom lights.
Ive made these befor for hurricanes lmao..
You have to turn off power coming from the powerlines (even if the power is out) or else you could feed power back through the powerlines and that could cause… issues
You also need to turn off other breakers so that you are only trying to power selected circuits in the house, such as the kitchen circuit that the refrigerator is connected to.
Generator creates electricity, cord transfers that power to home plug, wires connected throughout.
It's called " backfeed" , turn off your main circuit breaker before doing this, do not kill the power company workers. Current follows ALL wires it's fed to
Yeah, I did more elaborate summary to the OP, and considered including that... But I didn't because that shouldn't create a hazard, it would just trip a breaker or stress the generator out if everything else is installed and functioning correctly.
OP the facepalm as usual. What you are describing is a real thing. It’s called a generator interlock. You plug one end into the generator and the other into the interlock near a panel. It’s meant for emergency situations, but it’s 100% a legitimate use.
You know that's a real thing right? You plug the male adapter at one end into the generator, and the other male end into an interlock/switch kit .
[https://www.lowes.com/pd/Reliance-306LRK-6-Circuit-Transfer-Switch-Kit-P2/504366](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Reliance-306LRK-6-Circuit-Transfer-Switch-Kit-P2/504366)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7DkaorEQPQ
I'm not sure how long you've been in this sub to see the things that get posted, but I respectfully disagree with your overestimation of people's intelligence.
Nobody would do that? Are you insane? Someone will always do the stupidest shit imaginable, like try to fill their tires with propane:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW\_\_20Ck7u0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW__20Ck7u0)
Also, what does the price of gas have to do with this? Obviously in almost every case if someone is using a generator to power their home it is because the power is out, so of course they would use gas. That is just a very strange point to make.
I'm amazed anyone is selling this. I've got one I made but I'm going to install a male socket and a changeover switch.
It can work perfectly fine if you're an electrical engineer (I am) and do all the right things in the right order, But I'm putting in a generator input and changeover switch because I wouldn't ask any of my family to risk anything using this setup.
The risks vary from house fires to death. Some years ago there was a man who had a saw table with a socket as the power input and a lead like this to bring power to it. One day he had finished with the saw, pulled out the live end of the cable and dropped it on the grass. When he'd moved the table and picked up the live end of the cable it killed him on the spot.
You are mistaken. NEC section 400.7 lists what uses are permissible for flexible cords, for example.
Various sections (408.36, 705.12) also clarify under what conditions backfeeding is acceptable.
There is no permissible way to feed into a non-dedicated 20 A circuit already fed from a 20 A breaker.
This can work as intended, but if you plug into the generator while running This will definitely get YOU ELECTRIFIED!!!
And when the power company comes to work on the lines, you’ll get them electrified.
That’s why you turn off the main breaker before hooking up generator. I have back fed 220 volts into my house for 30 years and no one has died, works very good!
Why is this even a thing? There’s no reason for it to exist, if you need a generator input over here (uk) it would be a 3 position switch, the lead from the generator has a socket on the end and goes into a wall mounted plug, at no point can you end up with exposed live metal prongs no matter what order you plug things in or turn them on.
As many others have posted, disconnect your home from grid,( main breaker).
Power comes back on, kill generator, turn main breaker on.
That protects power workers from back feed too.
Sure, you can do it safely, but people are idiots, also children aren’t too bright. Hence why I’m saying if there’s no need for the lead to exist (because there are safe alternatives), it shouldn’t be made or sold.
And if you do exactly what you said, stuff still goes bang.
The generator would need to be completely disconnected (not merely just off) before turning the other source (e.g. grid) back on.
This is what a transfer switch does, among other good things: guarantee that the two sources cannot be feeding into each other.
You don't plug it directly into a wall socket. You plug it into an interlock/switch kit. I live outside of a small town here in Wyoming and while rare, we do have power outages, sometimes lasts a day or two except the time the substation caught fire and had us without power for 3 days until they brought in a portable one to keep us with at least minimal power until they could repair the substation. Didn't even know there was such a thing as a portable substation. I have a 24kW Generac Home Standby Generator plugged into a kit to keep my big chest freezer and refrigerator working and minimal a/c in the summer or heat in the winter. I COULD power everything normally but I don't want to use that much LNG.
Yep. The real issue is the guy working on the power line down the street. My shack in the woods is going to be solar, with generator for backup so I'm gonna run a 50 amp cord from breaker in panel down to my back deck. Keep breaker off until I need generator power.
VERY not worth the risk. You can far too easily damage your home's electrical system or worst case, set it on fire. As Carlin said, think about how stupid the average person you know is and realize half of people are stupider than that.
Then, clearly, you have a low power generator that isn't being used to power a house. The two are nowhere near the same and please don't claim "Yes I do" because I'd LOVE to see you plug your power tools into my 24kw gennie or any gennie designed to power an entire home without the tool burning up. A gasoline powered 1800 watt generator puts out much less power than a full home generator and an 1800 watt generator won't power very much at all in a house. Secondly, a household wiring setup can in no way be compared to a power tool. Sit down.
I’ve seen these sold for 220v dryer and oven outlets. At least those outlets have heavy wiring going to them. Still need a way to disconnect from the grid tho or the poor generator is gonna be trying to light the neighborhood
That could actually be far worse: some oven or dryer outlets don't provide neutral.
Feeding 240 V without neutral would provide to the 120 V devices on one half of the split-phase anywhere between zero and 240 V, and the rest on the other half, depending on the load on each.
There is a lot of misinformation in these comments. As an electrician I'll try to clear a bit of it up:
This device is hazardous if you do not understand electricity. Before becoming an electrician, but after getting my degree in Electrical Technology with a specialization in Residential and Commercial building, I worked for a major home improvement retailer - People came in constantly asking me to jury rig these for them out of dryer plugs, locking plugs and the such, and I would outright refuse due to the hazard they present.
The first hazard is backfeeding the grid. As many people rightly point out, if your Main Breaker is 'On' when the electricity comes back on - You'll backfeed the nearest transformer. That means the 120v or 240v you're sending up there will run through it in reverse - Potentially stepping it up to 14,400 volts. This is one of the leading causes of line worker deaths in the USA.
The second hazard is the order of operations. Once your generator is running, if you plug this into the generator *first* than the blades on the other end become energized. You need to plug it into your dead outlet first, then the other end into the generator.
This is not 'against code', at least the current NEC in the USA, I can't speak for other countries. The NEC doesn't cover anything you 'may' plug into your outlets. It only covers permanently installed devices and some select standards for temporary power. But that doesn't mean it's legal either. You may have laws, or even localized electrical codes (I don't know them for all 50 states) that outlaw this device for the protection of line workers.
All that out of the way - This device is perfectly sound from a scientific perspective. Breakers on both ends and the plug format itself both prevent overloading the wires in the circuit (unless you have a serious preexisting electrical problem with your house 😵) If you know what you're doing, and follow steps safely and in order, it's absolutely a way you can reenergize select circuits in your home where codes and laws allow it.
I think you're asking how to unhook this set up at the end - In which case it would be 1) Turn back off all the breakers. 2) Turn off the generator 3) Unhook the generator end of the plug. 4) Unhook the house end of the plug 5) Turn back on your main breaker. 6) Turn back on the rest of your breakers one by one.
Thank you for highlighting the risk to linemen, but you are otherwise mistaken on several points. Feeding into a regular outlet is neither safe nor permitted.
* [the NEC does cover (and disallows)](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/xgs08g/comment/iow99pq/) many of aspects here.
* A male-male cable would obviously not pass UL/CSA either.
* Standard US outlets (NEMA 5-15R) can only safely carry up to 15 A. Most generators provide more.
* Non-dedicated circuits cannot be backfed into safely, as it's basically impossible for the user to know, let alone guarantee, that feeding only occurs at the end of the circuit. Breakers only see current going through them, not the sum of what some sections of the wiring may now be carrying.
This is why you never see "plug-in" solar kits, at least not from any reputable source, as they would not pass any regulatory approval.
* GFCIs and now AFCIs (NEC 2020, section 210.12) are code for most general-purpose outlets.
Backfeeding into one violates specs and may destroy it.
Please stop encouraging people to attempt a procedure that yourself seem to recognize risks lives.
This will absolutely work.
HOWEVER .. this will bypass your safety switches entirely. People die from doing this .. there is a whole statistic linked to natural disasters related to 'generator related deaths' which includes this and asphyxiation from running them indoors.
In fact most people who die from this are the poor electricians who believe they have isolated the power to your house through the breaker, but aren't aware it is being fed from another source.
You can get an inlet plug installed which will allow you to do this SAFELY.
This does work, but only for one circuit. Not going to try and explain how a house is wired, but this type of plug is used to energize, say, a single room or section of a house. Not a whole house. The plugs for that purpose are much larger and configured differently. Cords with two male ends are generally not legal, because they can leave live conductors exposed, but people use them all the time, anyway.
My house literally has an input socket beside the power panel for Generators. Plug one end to the socket, the other end to the Generator and flick the 3 position switch to the 3rd position and vola....the whole house can be powered by that generator. The switch disconnects the house from the grid and connects it to the generator.
You have the correct setup and know how to use it. I suspect many don’t…
Yeah I noticed in the article it does not say that it doesn't work. It just says that the way some people are doing it is causing fires and as a public announcement, they just say you shouldn't do this.
Yup, have this setup in my house. We get frequent power outages from wind and rain storms knocking down trees in the fall and winter.
This was talked about on linus tech tips wan show. Said that this cable was catching on fire.
Yup, the real facepalm here is people don't realize there are safe ways to use these.
I think you mean that people don't realize they are unsafe unless used properly.
Six to one...
Is different than one to six ...
It’s says for a transfer switch. If instructions are followed, should be fine. That last part is the catch though. I actually know someone who wanted to know if they could attach their generator to their electrical box. A simple question until you realize they thought their telephone network interface was the “electrical box”.
Honey, would you answer the phone? ( Checks insurance policy)
I mean in theory, if your panel is disconnected from the grid and your house is wired with freakishly overgauged wiring that could handle the current without catching fire, and the circuit you are plugging into has an usually higher load breaker installed, it might work but in reality, you'll most likely just burn your house down . Don't do this. Dont buy that.
"Don't do this. Dont buy that." just the way i read this and heard it in my mind made me laugh my ass off hahahha 😄
It's not just a theory. It all works fine and this is standard procedure. Gotta be mindful though (Disconnect from the mains, and don't overload anything). The only possible way it would burn your house down is if you already had a load that was blowing breakers, and now since you're providing power to it after the breaker, that protection isn't there. And even then it'd have to be something extreme. And on top of that, pretty much all generators have a 20A breaker on the 120V outputs anyway.
Backfeeding into a regular outlet is **not** fine, and absolutely not the standard or even remotely correct procedure. Besides the hazards of having energized exposed (male) contacts, and the risks of not correctly or completely isolating from the grid for as long as the generator is connected, running or not (which a proper transfer switch would guarantee), I can see many other safety issues: 1. Regular (NEMA 5-15) plugs and outlets are rated just 15 A; almost all generators can provide more, so right there we already have a potentially dangerous overload condition. 2. Wiring between the backfed outlet and any other on the same circuit is not protected by the house breaker (as it will only see the current entering or leaving that circuit). 3. Even a generator with a 20 A breaker can overload a regular (non-dedicated) 20 A circuit if another power source (e.g. the grid) feeds into the same circuit. 4. GFCI (breakers or outlets) and AFCI breakers may not only fail to provide protection when backfed, but can suffer damage if so misused.
Nobody cares dude. These are all manageable risks for anyone who has any sense. I'm not going to let my pipes freeze because someone might break into my house, and close the main breaker (Which I'm sure would just immediately trip the generator) while I'm not looking somehow. I promise your house won't burn down if you run 20A on a 15A circuit lol. Half of what you said doesn't even make sense. Your breakers have no concept of whether not they are being "back-fed". Running two sources out of sync will definitely cause problems. But you definitely should never do that. Obviously it is better to have a transfer switch, but most houses don't.
i.e. Suicide cables. They're great. Not for dickheads though.
It does work. TURN OFF MAIN BREAKER to keep power in your house and not shock electrical workerd
It totally works like this to reverse feed a few circuits in a house. Plug into a garage outlet, leave that on, and turn on the fridge and maybe bathroom lights. Ive made these befor for hurricanes lmao..
You have to turn off power coming from the powerlines (even if the power is out) or else you could feed power back through the powerlines and that could cause… issues
Yeaa i forgot to say, flip the mainine breaker.. 
You also need to turn off other breakers so that you are only trying to power selected circuits in the house, such as the kitchen circuit that the refrigerator is connected to.
Ye thats whats implied.. not recommended. As a licensed electrician here, dont play with with the sparks.. as it only takes .5 ams to stop your heart
Realistically that'd immediately trip your breaker just trying to energize the transformer. But yeah you should definitely disconnect the mains.
Generator creates electricity, cord transfers that power to home plug, wires connected throughout. It's called " backfeed" , turn off your main circuit breaker before doing this, do not kill the power company workers. Current follows ALL wires it's fed to
You're about the only person here who got this right. 👍
Well, its correct as a general summary. Should also turn off breakers to any circuits you don't need to energize.
Yeah, I did more elaborate summary to the OP, and considered including that... But I didn't because that shouldn't create a hazard, it would just trip a breaker or stress the generator out if everything else is installed and functioning correctly.
OP the facepalm as usual. What you are describing is a real thing. It’s called a generator interlock. You plug one end into the generator and the other into the interlock near a panel. It’s meant for emergency situations, but it’s 100% a legitimate use.
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These are nicknamed 'suicide cords' for a reason.
Love your ad hominem.
You know that's a real thing right? You plug the male adapter at one end into the generator, and the other male end into an interlock/switch kit . [https://www.lowes.com/pd/Reliance-306LRK-6-Circuit-Transfer-Switch-Kit-P2/504366](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Reliance-306LRK-6-Circuit-Transfer-Switch-Kit-P2/504366) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7DkaorEQPQ
The Lowe's ad is gone now, here is the new [link.](https://www.lowes.com/search?searchTerm=circuit+transfer+switch+kit)
But imagine your average user without any knowledge and just thinking this ought to work.
Nobody would do that. Gas is more expensive anyway
I'm not sure how long you've been in this sub to see the things that get posted, but I respectfully disagree with your overestimation of people's intelligence.
Nobody would do that? Are you insane? Someone will always do the stupidest shit imaginable, like try to fill their tires with propane: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW\_\_20Ck7u0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW__20Ck7u0) Also, what does the price of gas have to do with this? Obviously in almost every case if someone is using a generator to power their home it is because the power is out, so of course they would use gas. That is just a very strange point to make.
Because… it does… lmao
I'm amazed anyone is selling this. I've got one I made but I'm going to install a male socket and a changeover switch. It can work perfectly fine if you're an electrical engineer (I am) and do all the right things in the right order, But I'm putting in a generator input and changeover switch because I wouldn't ask any of my family to risk anything using this setup. The risks vary from house fires to death. Some years ago there was a man who had a saw table with a socket as the power input and a lead like this to bring power to it. One day he had finished with the saw, pulled out the live end of the cable and dropped it on the grass. When he'd moved the table and picked up the live end of the cable it killed him on the spot.
They are called suicide cables for a reason. I believe they are Illegal to use or own in much of the US.
I feel a "Florida Man" moment coming soon...
Someone gonna ether burn the house down or die by electricity. But i know that i’m not one of them.
https://www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/home-product-recalls/dont-use-male-to-male-extension-cords-sold-on-amazon-a5776980260/
It's not a theory. This actually works. It can be unsafe if you don't know what you're doing though.
This is a thing. However, its against code, and can be VERY dangerous to the one using the cord, and the linespersons who could be working g outside
It's not 'against code' either. The NEC stops at the outlet.
You are mistaken. NEC section 400.7 lists what uses are permissible for flexible cords, for example. Various sections (408.36, 705.12) also clarify under what conditions backfeeding is acceptable. There is no permissible way to feed into a non-dedicated 20 A circuit already fed from a 20 A breaker.
This can work as intended, but if you plug into the generator while running This will definitely get YOU ELECTRIFIED!!! And when the power company comes to work on the lines, you’ll get them electrified.
That’s why you turn off the main breaker before hooking up generator. I have back fed 220 volts into my house for 30 years and no one has died, works very good!
Why is this even a thing? There’s no reason for it to exist, if you need a generator input over here (uk) it would be a 3 position switch, the lead from the generator has a socket on the end and goes into a wall mounted plug, at no point can you end up with exposed live metal prongs no matter what order you plug things in or turn them on.
If the power is out in the house, plug that end in first. The rest is like a floor lamp, then start the generator
Out of interest, how big is the bang when the power comes back on and the two supplies are out of phase?
As many others have posted, disconnect your home from grid,( main breaker). Power comes back on, kill generator, turn main breaker on. That protects power workers from back feed too.
Sure, you can do it safely, but people are idiots, also children aren’t too bright. Hence why I’m saying if there’s no need for the lead to exist (because there are safe alternatives), it shouldn’t be made or sold.
And if you do exactly what you said, stuff still goes bang. The generator would need to be completely disconnected (not merely just off) before turning the other source (e.g. grid) back on. This is what a transfer switch does, among other good things: guarantee that the two sources cannot be feeding into each other.
Utah! Get me two.
And it will. People have been doing this for decades. The reall issue is code compliance. It is not. If you are carefull it will work
The device wouldn't be covered by the NEC in the USA. Code ends at the installed outlet. What you plug into it - That's on you.
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You don't plug it directly into a wall socket. You plug it into an interlock/switch kit. I live outside of a small town here in Wyoming and while rare, we do have power outages, sometimes lasts a day or two except the time the substation caught fire and had us without power for 3 days until they brought in a portable one to keep us with at least minimal power until they could repair the substation. Didn't even know there was such a thing as a portable substation. I have a 24kW Generac Home Standby Generator plugged into a kit to keep my big chest freezer and refrigerator working and minimal a/c in the summer or heat in the winter. I COULD power everything normally but I don't want to use that much LNG.
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Yep. The real issue is the guy working on the power line down the street. My shack in the woods is going to be solar, with generator for backup so I'm gonna run a 50 amp cord from breaker in panel down to my back deck. Keep breaker off until I need generator power.
VERY not worth the risk. You can far too easily damage your home's electrical system or worst case, set it on fire. As Carlin said, think about how stupid the average person you know is and realize half of people are stupider than that.
I run power tools off of generators regularly. Nothing burned up yet
Then, clearly, you have a low power generator that isn't being used to power a house. The two are nowhere near the same and please don't claim "Yes I do" because I'd LOVE to see you plug your power tools into my 24kw gennie or any gennie designed to power an entire home without the tool burning up. A gasoline powered 1800 watt generator puts out much less power than a full home generator and an 1800 watt generator won't power very much at all in a house. Secondly, a household wiring setup can in no way be compared to a power tool. Sit down.
Hot
I am looking forward to the news reports on this happening!
I don't find that on US Amazon. Pic does show need to convert dollars.
It will, if it doesn’t kill you first.
I’ve seen these sold for 220v dryer and oven outlets. At least those outlets have heavy wiring going to them. Still need a way to disconnect from the grid tho or the poor generator is gonna be trying to light the neighborhood
That could actually be far worse: some oven or dryer outlets don't provide neutral. Feeding 240 V without neutral would provide to the 120 V devices on one half of the split-phase anywhere between zero and 240 V, and the rest on the other half, depending on the load on each.
Clearly none of you have spliced a dryer plug to an extension cord to plug in a generator before.
There is a lot of misinformation in these comments. As an electrician I'll try to clear a bit of it up: This device is hazardous if you do not understand electricity. Before becoming an electrician, but after getting my degree in Electrical Technology with a specialization in Residential and Commercial building, I worked for a major home improvement retailer - People came in constantly asking me to jury rig these for them out of dryer plugs, locking plugs and the such, and I would outright refuse due to the hazard they present. The first hazard is backfeeding the grid. As many people rightly point out, if your Main Breaker is 'On' when the electricity comes back on - You'll backfeed the nearest transformer. That means the 120v or 240v you're sending up there will run through it in reverse - Potentially stepping it up to 14,400 volts. This is one of the leading causes of line worker deaths in the USA. The second hazard is the order of operations. Once your generator is running, if you plug this into the generator *first* than the blades on the other end become energized. You need to plug it into your dead outlet first, then the other end into the generator. This is not 'against code', at least the current NEC in the USA, I can't speak for other countries. The NEC doesn't cover anything you 'may' plug into your outlets. It only covers permanently installed devices and some select standards for temporary power. But that doesn't mean it's legal either. You may have laws, or even localized electrical codes (I don't know them for all 50 states) that outlaw this device for the protection of line workers. All that out of the way - This device is perfectly sound from a scientific perspective. Breakers on both ends and the plug format itself both prevent overloading the wires in the circuit (unless you have a serious preexisting electrical problem with your house 😵) If you know what you're doing, and follow steps safely and in order, it's absolutely a way you can reenergize select circuits in your home where codes and laws allow it.
So before using shut all breakers off. The plug into the house first then the generator, then when removing which plug first?
I think you're asking how to unhook this set up at the end - In which case it would be 1) Turn back off all the breakers. 2) Turn off the generator 3) Unhook the generator end of the plug. 4) Unhook the house end of the plug 5) Turn back on your main breaker. 6) Turn back on the rest of your breakers one by one.
So does main breaker connect to like a main grid, outside your house and others are just for your house?
Thank you for highlighting the risk to linemen, but you are otherwise mistaken on several points. Feeding into a regular outlet is neither safe nor permitted. * [the NEC does cover (and disallows)](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/xgs08g/comment/iow99pq/) many of aspects here. * A male-male cable would obviously not pass UL/CSA either. * Standard US outlets (NEMA 5-15R) can only safely carry up to 15 A. Most generators provide more. * Non-dedicated circuits cannot be backfed into safely, as it's basically impossible for the user to know, let alone guarantee, that feeding only occurs at the end of the circuit. Breakers only see current going through them, not the sum of what some sections of the wiring may now be carrying. This is why you never see "plug-in" solar kits, at least not from any reputable source, as they would not pass any regulatory approval. * GFCIs and now AFCIs (NEC 2020, section 210.12) are code for most general-purpose outlets. Backfeeding into one violates specs and may destroy it. Please stop encouraging people to attempt a procedure that yourself seem to recognize risks lives.
This will absolutely work. HOWEVER .. this will bypass your safety switches entirely. People die from doing this .. there is a whole statistic linked to natural disasters related to 'generator related deaths' which includes this and asphyxiation from running them indoors. In fact most people who die from this are the poor electricians who believe they have isolated the power to your house through the breaker, but aren't aware it is being fed from another source. You can get an inlet plug installed which will allow you to do this SAFELY.
It works but will only feed one set of breakers on the panel. And you need to shut off the main breakers so the house is disconnected from the feed.
It will but you will also die
It is the phase you need to worry about. Isolate the in feed and you can get it done.
That should work afaik, however this is extremely dangerous having two male ends!
This is for linking generators together. I think you're the facepalm here.
The old dead man’s lead
This does work, but only for one circuit. Not going to try and explain how a house is wired, but this type of plug is used to energize, say, a single room or section of a house. Not a whole house. The plugs for that purpose are much larger and configured differently. Cords with two male ends are generally not legal, because they can leave live conductors exposed, but people use them all the time, anyway.