this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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Not legally, and if you're not careful it can go from a suicide cord to a homicide cord. If you're still connected to the grid while you use one, it can backfeed and fry a lineman who was working on what they thought was a disconnect line.
The proper way to do it is to get a transfer switch, which disconnects you from mains before you can connect to a generator.
Not doubting what you're saying but just a bit confused because wouldn't electrifying what a lineman works on end up overloading the generator because you're now powering everything up to where the circuit broke upstream? Saying this based on an assumption that the lines service multple households and the generators are designed to keep important things running rather than just replace power plants for even one house, let alone the neighbourhood.
How do they handle solar setups that are set up specifically to send power into the grid?
Not an electrician, I always imagined the downed power line being close to the house, such that when you backfeed the transformer it doesn't have a load on it until the lineman grabs it and becomes the load.
I imagine when your circuit that's still connected includes several houses or most of your neighborhood, then maybe you'd overload the generator? 🤷♂️ I don't know.
Solar systems I do know, though. If you have a grid-tied solar system, that feeds power back into the grid, then when the power goes out, your batteries and inverters are all turned off automatically so they won't kill linemen. That's what's ironic about grid connected solar, you can't use it during a power outage. They only work when the power is on.
Now if you have a standalone solar system, with a transfer panel where you can switch several circuits in your house to either run on the grid OR solar, then you can use solar whether the grid is up or down. But you can never feed the grid to make money back directly in that fashion.