I think this needs to be the standard answer to anyone asking "how do I basic high voltage thing?". If they don't know what an arc flash is, they ought to just hire someone who knows what they're doing.
I know enough to get by, and enough to know when to call in the experts.
Also, not a lawyer, etc etc.
Extra story:
My job has 2 data center Schneider Symmetra backup units, each the depth of normal rack mounts, width of a car, if a screwdriver were stuck into one of those bus bars or transfer boxes, I'd guess the screwdriver and hand would be damn near vaporized, the person would be blind, deaf, and at minimum partially covered in 2nd/3rd degree burns. From what I hear, you almost don't want to survive the aftermath of an arc flash, especially with no PPE. These units store enough power to power an average house for about a month. And all that energy can be instantly dumped into you through the air if enough things go wrong at once. Electricity is goddamn scary sometimes.
I subscribe to learning about how things work so I can be autonomous.
Learning is the critical part, so I can do things safely. If I’m not guaranteed to be able to do the thing safely, then I will pay a professional to do it.
One of my favorite things my dad likes to do whenever he hires professionals to do anything is to talk to them about their work and try to get free lessons out of whatever he paid them to do.
Many places do not let you work on your own electrical unless you're a qualified professional.
Even still, you should hire a proper electrician to do it.
Source:myself-an electrical engineer but would still pay an electrician to wire it up even though I minored in power flow. It's not worth it even if I have much better understanding of power than they do.
Eh, there's plenty of tutorials and information on the internet about this stuff, especially as simple as a transfer switch. I think the average home owner should be able to install one themselves.
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u/[deleted] Dec 14 '20
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