Our home is wired with a female end for a generator. All generators have female ends for plugging things in. Can you get a male-male adaptor to connect the generator to the house? If not what is the solution?
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1Can you trace the quite improper generator "connection" back to the panel it connects to?– ThreePhaseEelCommented Jan 8, 2022 at 15:06
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2Pictures would be helpful for spotting other errors, possibly. You can edit to add those.– EcnerwalCommented Jan 8, 2022 at 15:19
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1 Answer
That is an improper connector for a "suicide cord" - remove it and replace it with a proper "inlet." Which is a "male connector you mount on the wall."
Never heard of the place that had a usable picture of one, and no endorsement is implied. This one hapens to be "twist-lock" (L prefix) style. The pictures I could find of straight-blade styles were from sites that the images would not copy correctly from. This is an L14-30P inlet - 14-30P inlets, 14-50P inlets and (twist locking) CS6375 inlets are all possibilities. 30 is 30 Amperes, 50 is 50 Amperes
A suicide cord is so-called becasue it has exposed energized prongs.
The fact that your generator input is wired for a suicide cord strongly suggests that it may have other issues (such as lack of a proper interlock) and should be completely reviewed for safety and code-compliance. Those can and do kill people.
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Note that there is no L14-50 anything, CS6375 type connectors are used instead Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 15:05
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1Note that in a pinch, you can achieve 95% of the safety with a "hillbilly inlet"... using a junction box and a 4-wire dryer or range cord (the kind with a plug). Stop by an electrical supply house to get the correct strain relief for the cord (and a junction box that will fit that strain relief, and the cord while you're at it). That will give you the male connector needed to not be immediately lethal, although it's still a code violation because of risk of damage to the cord, and the weather will quickly destroy it. Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 18:37
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I know someone with a house generator with a worse rigup. If you didn't go turn off all of the breakers before plugging it in, bad things happened. It was intended to power one of the two kitchen 120 circuits (the one the fridge happened to be on) but you suicide-cord plugged it into a wall.– JoshuaCommented Jan 8, 2022 at 23:04
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I'm not going to justify the suicide plug rigup; but it appears because it can be built from common (cheap) parts. The interlock is expensive in comparison.– JoshuaCommented Jan 8, 2022 at 23:05