this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (7 children)

A former coworker was abroad most of the time. Still, his power meter showed lots of usage during his absence. A tenant in the same house had used such a cord to leech power across the common laundry room.

Now that coworker knew his way about electricity. So instead of the 220V between common and a phase, he rewired his washing machine socket to two different phases, aka 380V, and left for a week.

When he came back, he saw a number of kitchen- and other appliances waiting for trash collection.

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[–] rektstarsceosu@lemmy.zip 157 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)
[–] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What if I yell "no homo!" when I plug it in?

[–] guyoverthere123@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

where are you plugging it in?

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[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago

"this time of year" is 100% christmas.

from people putting up lights, probably trying to run remote power to a box with an extension cord, or because they installed half their lights backward and need this to bridge between the two sets because they rather embrace the danger than redo all the work.

[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 83 points 4 days ago (15 children)

I have heard there are ways to use these to back feed power from a generator into a house’s system, at least on one breaker, but by definition that bypasses the breaker panel, and the only safe way to use your generator for your house is with a proper cutover installed by an electrician. I can think of literally no other use for one of these cords, except maybe fixing your fuck up if you install Christmas lights backwards.

So yeah, dumb, dumb idea.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 57 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

This is all reasonably accurate. Source: electrician, who worked at a supply store for a while. I've had people ask how to make all kinds of stupid cords.

If you don't know what you're doing, don't fool with electricity

[–] zippythezigzag@lemm.ee 2 points 2 days ago

Unionized Kobold electricians. Hmm.

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[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 47 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It also backfeeds the grid and can kill someone working on the lines.

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[–] The_Hideous_Orgalorg@sh.itjust.works 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

My friend's house does this with their generator. There is a lockout on the breaker, and the main must be off to move it and open the one that feeds the back porch where they tie the generator in. Once the breakers are cycled, they can plug the generator into the outlet on the porch, and it runs there, sheltered from the weather. When the main power is working again, they turn off the generator, remove the cord, disable the breaker, toggle the lockout bar, and turn the main back on. The particular outlet on the porch is useless when using grid power because of this setup.

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[–] ximtor@lemm.ee 33 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

No idea how and why but my dad once had a cable like that in his workshop.

Short story: we were having a party, bit drunk and wanted power for the bigger speakers, needed an extension, rummaged around and found this one. Of course didn't check the ends, plugged it in and then thought "oh what a weird male adapter there, lets take it...bzzzzt".

Have a tiny burn scar on my hand now, luckily nothing else happened. The cable got dismantled afterwards, but I still don't know why it was there in the first place, he is a pretty good handyman normally.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If you lose power, you can use one of these cables to power your house (or at least, the part of your house on that phase).

This is not how you should do this, but it can work. It is not a good idea (possibly illegal?).

[–] kassiopaea@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 3 days ago (4 children)

In my jurisdiction, backfeeding your house from a receptacle is very illegal. Transfer switches and interlock kits exist for a reason.

For anyone wondering exactly why it's a bad idea: Power from your generator can, if your house isn't isolated from the grid, travel back into the utility lines and backward through the big transformer at the utility pole (so now it's a few thousand volts again) and give an unsuspecting linesman a nasty surprise. People have died from this. It is a bad idea.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This is also why solar inverters in most countries MUST be able to 'island' (logically disconnect from grid) in order to run a battery.

We don't have a battery yet, so our inverter shuts down on grid loss. Frustrating as hell when there's an outage on a sunny day, but i get it.

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[–] n3cr0@lemmy.world 34 points 4 days ago

My granpa once assigned a master electrician to make an extension cord after he accidently cut the cable of his hedge trimmer. The electrician built him a male2male cord with the female part on the machine. My granpa almost got electrocuted. 🤦‍♂️

[–] h3mlocke@lemm.ee 13 points 3 days ago

I sell so many of these around Xmas time, I just make them myself with scissors and electric tape.

[–] ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Sorry, what is "this time of the year"? Suicide September?

[–] DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca 46 points 4 days ago (1 children)

People use them to make their generators power their homes, by adding power into an outlet.

So, whatever time of year power outages are likely to happen in this area.

[–] hansolo@lemm.ee 18 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Holy shit, does that work?

I'm only familiar with having a generator properly wired into the house system at the panel, not some electrical Uno Reverse.

[–] tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net 24 points 4 days ago

yes, it would (possibly) work, but you're likely to run into quite a few safety-related issues outside of using the suicide cord. the fact that you're probably injecting power downstream from any RCD units or even any basic current breakers, leaving you open to electrocution, or worst case, fire. the other issue is if you dont isolate your home from the grid before doing thus, then when the grid comes back (and your generator is still.. generating) there's likly to be a loud bang and a dead generator, let alone the risks you put on any workmen who are working on the lines they are expecting to not be carrying current.

TLDR; unless your hourse is specifically wired for this, and you have the necessary protections in place, just use an extension cord and plug your fridge directly into the generator. 🤷

[–] JakenVeina@lemm.ee 18 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I did it last week. We were out of power for about 30 hours. But I actually have a degree in Computer Engineering, and I did it with a friend who is a professional Electrician.

It is indeed EXTREMELY dangerous. If you don't know what you're doing, or make a mistake, best case scenario, you fry your generator. Worst case, you electrocute a lineman from the power company, who isn't expecting lines to be live when there's an outage, because yes, if you feed power into your house, that will flow OUT of your house onto the main lines (to some extent), if you let it. You could end up trying to power your whole block on your little gas generator.

We made sure both the indoor and outdoor main power shutoffs for the house were turned off, as well as all breakers. Then we unplugged the oven, and used that for the feed from the generator. Then we gradually re-activated breakers so as not to add too much load to the generator at once. Ultimately, we were able to run the whole house, except for the AC compressor, which the generator actually would have had enough power to run, but not to kick-start.

The proper way to hook up a generator to feed your house is to install an "inlet" which is both nominatively and physically the opposite of an outlet: instead of holes going into a box, you have prongs sticking out of a box. Generally, it'll be one of the big fat 4-pronged round cables, like what your oven might use. That'll feed down to a large double-breaker, in the top-right slot of your breaker panel. That breaker stays off until you want to run a generator, and, to meet code, you have to also install a special bracket that prevents you from turning this breaker off without turning off the primary feed for the whole house. Still kinda dangerous, but they make those brackets surprisingly foolproof.

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[–] RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It does, but it's super dangerous to do unless you have it wired up properly. Proper installations will use a special connector so you can't plug anything else into that receptical, and will have it interlocked against the main breaker - you can't plug anything in without disconnecting from the grid. The dangers of doing it amateur-hour are:

  • You now have a cable that you can unplug and have live ends exposed - which if you don't realize is connected to an active generator is super dangerous, and even if you do one slip and you are now the ground conductor
  • If you connect the generator while still connected to the grid, your generator is almost certainly going to be out of phase. This will probably cause damage to your generator and anything else plugged in at the time
  • If you don't have an interlock and run the generator while connected to the grid (say during a power outage) you will be back-feeding power into the grid. This is super dangerous for anyone coming to fix the outage, as things that they've isolated to fix can still end up being live

Note that this interlock is also required if you have solar - although it's usually in the form of an automatic breaker that will disconnect and put the circuit into "island mode" if it detects a loss of grid supply

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[–] doctordevice@lemmy.ca 22 points 4 days ago (4 children)

I'm gonna guess winter, hanging Christmas lights. People string up their lights and then realize far too late that they put two strands with female ends facing each other and instead of restringing they look for a male-to-male cord to bridge the gap.

A little live wire shouldn't stand in the way of holiday cheer, after all.

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[–] Freshparsnip@lemm.ee 41 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It is written in the book of Leviticus: "It shall be unclean for one end of an electric cord to match the other"

[–] Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Holy shit, this is what that part in the bible is actually about. People back then just didn't know about electricity so they thought it was about gay people.

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[–] RaptorBenn@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Take it down, darwin demands sacrifice, lest we be riddled with stupidity.

[–] Sir_Simon_Spamalot@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Except that sometimes, those idiots could take people down with them. That electrical fire might spread to another house, and the person getting electrocuted might not be the idiot.

[–] RaptorBenn@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

Imagine I'm making the most exasperated, annoyed, disapponted noise possible.

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[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 4 days ago (6 children)

What would they even be used for except to short a circuit?

Some genius won't pay attention to the orientation of a christmas light display while he's putting them up, he'll go to plug them in, and they'll be the wrong way, so he'll want an "adapter."

[–] HereIAm@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I will just regurgitate what I've heard. I think they are used in case power goes out and you have a generator. You need to disconnect from the power grid first, but it should then allow you to power tour house with the generator. It sounds more like a US thing.

[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yes, this would technically work. Although, it would only power the hot leg the outlet is connected to which only feeds part of the house.

It's very dangerous for a variety of reasons. Especially if you forget to shut off the mains breaker. The transformer can backfeed power down the line at line voltages, creating a shock hazard for lineman or anyone else who might have contact with the line.

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[–] tekeous@usenet.lol 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Sounds like they don’t like gay cords and that’s a hate crime

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 21 points 4 days ago

They have no problem with lesbian cords. Patriarcordy strikes again :(

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)
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[–] spacesatan@leminal.space 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

They cant stop you from buying heat shrink and wire strippers. Don't let nothing hold you back

[–] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago

Nothing can hold me back. Because I am stuck in place by the electricity coursing through my body.

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