The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Long shot I know, but there are a lot of smart people here...smarter than me and I don't frequent any DIY forums or electricity places.

I'll try and keep this short but not sure I can. Currently out of power at the house due to east coast ice storm. I have an emergency generator and a transfer switch. Generator runs a big 4-connector, thick wire (240 I think) to my "transfer switch" which in turn distributes power to necessary things like HVAC, sump pump, fridge and just a couple of outlets on the first floor. One of those outlets is a GFI outlet in my dining room. The rest of the non-essentials don't get power....including my home office that has the wifi/router/etc.

Typically if I want to run a radio or other small appliance I run an extension cord from that GFI outlet in the dining room to it. No problems there.

I can obviously run that extension cord from the dining room to a power strip and in turn run 3-4 office related things like laptop, wife, router, and such...done it many time. This time I got to thinking why not make a double male ended plug, plug one end into the wall socket and in turn power up that one entire circuit for my office. I know what breaker in the main house panel it is and what sockets/lights it feeds. I cut two 18g three-pronged extension cords and spliced the two male ends together. I turned off that breaker to the office at the panel. I figured I could basically back-feed the wall outlet and supply any outlet/light that is on the circuit. As soon as I plug the double ended extension cord in the GFI in the dining room trips.

This works fine Generator>>>Transfer Switch>>>Dining Room Outlet>>>Coffeepot.

This does not work Generator>>>Transfer Switch>>>Dining Room Outlet>>>Double male ended extension cord>>>Home Office Outlet.

Can I do what I want to? Seems to me I am just trying to make electricity go in the opposite direction after all my wiring in my walls is just a path for electricity to flow, no I'm thinking my double ended male plug does not have the proper gauge wire, but just a guess. Don't know a ton about electricity but this seems like it should work to me.

You must not do this! First it is very dangerous to have a double male ended cord because if it is plugged in the dining room outlet you have high voltage on the other male end. If the loose male end touches anything it will cause a short cirtcuit and thus destroy the transfer switch and maybe also the generator. That's the best case - but probably the story will end with somebody being electrocuted because he/she touched the male end...
And you can't "feed" power into an outlet. It just doesn't work that way. May cause damage or fire when the regular current is back.

Btw, you probably meant wifi and not wife

^This.

Double male extension cords are referred to by electricians as suicide cords. There's a reason for that!

Maybe they should be called Darwin cords I've seen lots of info and heard people talk in the past that during a power outage you can (not that you should or it is to code) run a generator's output into your electric dryer outlet to power your entire breaker box and in turn power all your other breakers/house. If you plug it into the "dead" outlet first then into your source and are at all careful I think all but the dumbest should be fine. On the other hand if you don't see my posting in the future hit my wife up for some good deals on watches.

I got several answers to same question on a home brewing forum I frequent and not one suggestion to not try it. They are pretty innovative types those home brewers. General consensus was the gauge of the wire was too small. They all seemed to think it should have worked. At any rate the power is back on so all is well...till next time.

Perhaps a home brew forum (probably frequented by tippling tipplers) is not the place to ask for innovative answers to electrical questions. As others have said, please don't use the double male cord.

A GFCI monitors to assure that all current flowing from the GFCI hot side is returning through the GFCI neutral side wire and not being diverted to ground. For example, if your wife drops her hairdryer into your bathtub, the GFCI should protect you - at least from that incident. A GFCI does not react to overcurrent (the circuit breaker role), nor can it determine and respond to the gauge of your extension wire. Under gauge/over current wire will typically send out a smoke signal and then self destruct either before or after setting the surroundings afire. The office circuit neutral wire (that is NOT disconnected when you turn off the office circuit breaker) IS returning some of the office appliance current to the breaker panel. This creates an imbalance in the neutral return current of the GFCI with respect to the hot side GFCI current. In short, it's doing it's job by disconnecting innovative and risky wiring - like the wife returning her hairdryer current to ground through your bathtub.

Be safe out there!!!!

Desert Hiker