Let's talk about back feed!

[bobbo]

It's storm time. And every transformer is a source. As soon as a customer plugs it into a wall outlet the house service energizes the can. Thus energizing a circuit.

It's the hot time of year? And rubber will be the answer always for the guys in air condition trucks. But if you have down wire how do you protect the public and employees.

utilities should have Public Service Announcement about the dangers of using a generator to energize a home.

we should all have the right to pull meters and open doors to protect ourselves.

we can ground both sides of an open or down wire.

When we patrol not only isolate our source but also listen for generators in the area.

Get your yards together and discuss how you are going to approach down wire and broke poles and severely hot weather!

[Hebrew]

It's storm time. And every transformer is a source. As soon as a customer plugs it into a wall outlet the house service energizes the can. Thus energizing a circuit.

It's the hot time of year? And rubber will be the answer always for the guys in air condition trucks. But if you have down wire how do you protect the public and employees.

utilities should have Public Service Announcement about the dangers of using a generator to energize a home.

we should all have the right to pull meters and open doors to protect ourselves.

we can ground both sides of an open or down wire.

When we patrol not only isolate our source but also listen for generators in the area.

Get your yards together and discuss how you are going to approach down wire and broke poles and severely hot weather!

It's hurricane season for us here in the Caribbean,same problem we face.Thanks for the reminder!!

[bren guzzi]

It's hurricane season for us here in the Caribbean,same problem we face.Thanks for the reminder!!

All our customers are fused from the pole..as well as in their home.we never ever pass a fuse when working on a pole due to potential back feeds.
back in 1985 when I was only out of line school one of my crew was killed working on a transformer ..
myself and another guy had to go up, extinguish the body,then recover his remains into a body bag. He was completely melted down one side of his body. And " NOT A JOKE" he smelled exactly like KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN." I've never eaten it since... And will not let any of my team pass a fuse..no matter how trivial the job to be done on the pole......
I pass the pole occasionally when back in Dublin. Always reminds me of the incident. That was a steep learning curve. :(

[rob8210]

Backfeed and second point of contact is the biggest killers of power lineman. Whenever we are working with a transfer isolated, we always remove the secondary leads, eliminating a possible backfeed. We all are well aware of what backfeed can do and every man on our crew keeps ears open for generators too!

[bobbo]

Backfeed and second point of contact is the biggest killers of power lineman. Whenever we are working with a transfer isolated, we always remove the secondary leads, eliminating a possible backfeed. We all are well aware of what backfeed can do and every man on our crew keeps ears open for generators too!

They talk about safety but you never hear anything on public service announcements to keep the generator stand alone appliance. Detroit the weatherman will say stay away from down lines because they are energized. You figure utilities are naming ball fields with billions. Why they couldn't put a small commercial about plugging generators in outlets and what it will do. Not only our safety but the publics. Just imagine you do a Red Green hook up and their mast is burned and shorted, they will get flashed!

And most storms they are getting bird dogs that are like janitors that just know locations. And they have no grid maps. So you have to patrol even harder. They should call up retirees from both construction and the utility to guide us, who have a clue what's in the air. Most contractors and utilities are losing pick ups due to fuel prices. And big trucks have to patrol and that sucks.

Lineman get burned up in storms. But every major storm I have been too lineman get into bad accidents. Buckets get rolled. Lights are not working and they get run into, hopefully not a Wal mart truck. More lineman get killed in the chaos in trucks than the wire. Because there is no communication or radios. And you are trying to follow a little pick up with a 40000 pound truck and a load of poles.

lets make suggestions so everyone is safe and maybe with some luck someone that can change things will read it!