Week of 13 September 1999

Daynotes Journal

Week of 13 September 1999

Friday, 05 July 2002 08:06

A (mostly) daily journal of the trials, tribulations, and random observations of Robert Bruce Thompson, a writer of computer books.

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Monday, 13 September 1999

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This week we start an experiment. As I mentioned yesterday, the length of the consolidated journal page was getting too long for comfort. FrontPage has an estimated download time indicator at the bottom, and last week's page approached two minutes. Granted, that's at 28.8, and assumes no compression, so few readers would have to wait that long. Still, at almost 150 KB, that's a big page. So I broke my single journal page in separate journal pages and mail pages. We'll see how it goes. If it become insufferable for either readers or for me, I may return to the old single-page method.

Although my main concern was for readers who might have to stare at a blank screen for a minute or more while this page downloaded, there was also some self-interest operating. I edit directly in FrontPage Editor, and the larger the page gets the slower the editor works. I touch-type, and it's disconcerting to have words appear on screen a second or more after I type them. On balance, maintaining two pages will be more work for me, but I think it'll be worth it.

* * * * *

I now have yet one more thing to keep up with. My friends John Mikol and Steve Tucker came over Saturday to help with a couple of projects. John brought back my 6 foot bellhanger drill bit and guide, which he'd borrowed two or three years ago and forgotten he had. I in turn returned Steve's butt set and toner, which I'd had for the better part of a year and hadn't used.

The main project was to get my generator operational. We bought it six months or so ago, and it's been sitting in the basement unused ever since. I'd been avoiding running it for the first time, because I knew that once I did that I'd need to run it every month or so to keep it from corroding. John convinced me that I should run it.

The first order of business was to build a highly illegal backfeed cable. For those who aren't familar with generators, the right way to connect a generator to your home wiring is to purchase an isolation switch and pay an electrician to install it. The problem is that buying such a switch and getting it installed can easily cost more than $1,000, so very few people actually do what they're supposed to.

Instead, what a lot of people do is use a backfeed cable. The power company frowns on this, to say the least, because it kills linemen. In theory, a backfeed cable is perfectly safe. When the power fails, you turn off the main breakers, which disconnects your home from the utility wiring. You then plug the backfeed cable, which is a simple male-to-male extension cord, into your generator and the 240 volt receptacle for your electric clothes dryer. When the generator powers up, it puts voltage on both legs of the 240 volt line, and you can run anything in your home from generator power.

The problem, of course, occurs when someone connects and powers up the generator but forgets to throw the main breakers. That puts voltage on the power company's wires. What's worse is that a transformer works just as well going backwards as it does going forwards, so the 240 volts you put on the public wire can be stepped up to 50,000 volts or more. Some unsuspecting lineman, assuming that your end of the cable is dead (as it should be) can get a 50,000 volt surprise.

Although I plan to install a proper isolation switch, I also wanted to have a backfeed cable just on general principles. I acquired fifty feet of heavy-duty cable and the necessary connectors. This cable looks almost exactly like a garden hose and has four 8-gauge wires in it. I'd never built a high-amperage cable, and didn't feel comfortable attempting it. John offered to build it for me, and I'm glad he did.

Once he had the cable built and tested out with his meter, we decided to make sure everything fit. The three of us went to the main breaker panel and located the main breaker. We stood there scratching our heads, because the main breaker was only 60 amps. No way is that big enough to service this house. We *knew* that. Standard service is 100 amps, and most newer homes have 200 amp service. That should have been a major clue, but we ignored it. We threw the main breaker and connected the backfeed cable to the dryer receptacle.

Fortunately, we were doing things in the proper order. John was examining the end of the cable intended to connect to the generator when Steve and I heard a shout. John said a very bad word. He'd gotten 240 volts across his thumb, thereby craftily saving wear and tear on his meter. Fortunately, John was not hurt badly, although he burned his thumb and it could have been much more serious. 240 volts is not something to mess around with.

The problem, of course, is that our main breaker isn't really a main breaker at all. The 60 amps it provides powers everything in the house except for the heavy stuff--electric dryer, kitchen range, etc. The feed for those appliances goes directly from mains power to the appliance via a dedicated breaker, bypassing the main breaker entirely. The upshot is that I can't backfeed from my generator, which I probably shouldn't have been considering anyway. The only solution, short of installing the proper bypass switch, is to have the power company come out and install a service disconnect switch at the meter. And that's something I'm going to have done anyway. I'm not comfortable not having a way to disconnect all power from the house.