I was over on the mainland yesterday and couldn't believe that the power was still out in Burnaby. J&L was out for 36 hours and the power had just come back online when we got there mid afternoon. The wind hit 170KM/H here! We live next to a large hospital here in Vic. and I'm pretty sure that is main reason that our power didn't go out once the whole time. When I left for work Friday morning, the power was out all around us but we were fine
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As for connecting your generator to your house panel... DON'T! You are NOT allowed to backfeed your home with a generator if the power is out. I would hate to be a BC hydro linesman working on downed lines and hoping that no one is backfeeding their home. Just think.. you fire up the generator, plug it in to the house wiring, you forget to shut off the mains or don't connect something up correctly and all of sudden you've got 120VAC going out of your house. This voltage hits the transformer on the pole and BAM!... you've got something like 25,000VAC on the downed lines which some BC Hydro guy has in his hands. SCARY!
You can have a generator connected up to your house as a backup, but it has to be properly installed with a transfer switch that will guarantee complete isolation from the grid.