You beat me to the punch. I was going to start a thread listing weird things I've seen during this power outage. Most people can get by with a short power outage even up to 8 hours or so. They can even get on with their lives if they lose the food in their fridge. However, once you add
cold to the equation they start doing very unscrupulous things. But I agree with you that the things you listed should be a minimum requirement and should be enforced by local officials. The problem is that these officials are stretched to the max and cannot go around house to house checking on people's generator hook-ups.
Being "Code compliant" can be entire thread unto itself. There are some that might argue that even doing all the things you suggest would not make the installation Code compliant. They'll be making these claims from their warm, cozy homes.
There was another thread started here regarding interlock kits and one of the items you listed is an interlock kit. It is not my intention to pirate this thread but many inspectors here in NJ will not allow interlock kits that are not UL
Listed by the panel manufacturer. My contention is that people will do anything they can and go to any extent to keep their families warm. From my point of view I would rather see them do it safely (even if the device is UL tested and not UL listed) than to make a connection that is not safe.
Anyway, I hope you don't mind but here are some things that I've seen during this power outage that I hope your recommendations will help to correct :
- Extension cords run (on the ground) across high traffic roads
- Generator power cords made up with 2 male ends
- 2KW generators attempting to power an entire house
- Generators back-feeding through AC disconnects
- Generators back-feeding through spa tub disconnects
- Female ends of extension cords cut and used to back-feed into breaker panels
- No attachment plugs and wires stuck into the 30 amp receptacles
- Generators running inside detached garages (because HD told the HO you can't keep these generators out in the rain)
- 120V outputs on generators fed directly into a breaker panel and jumped across a 2-pole breaker