Meaning of suicide cable | Babel Free

Definitions

A simple electrical cord with prongs on both ends; plugging one end into a live outlet (for example a generator) and the other end into a dead outlet (in a house with no power) allows power to be injected from the live outlet into the dead one.

informal

Examples

“When the hurricane hit and I lost power, I fired up the generator and jacked it in to the outlet in my garage with a suicide cable; at least I was able to run⟳ a few lights and my refrigerator.”

“I did the same thing as you, except I ran one suicide cable from the genset to the house, then because the genset is only 120v, I ran another suicide cable from phase to phase to get⟳ 120v throughout the house.”

“Measure⟳ the voltage drop when it's on. Break⟳ out the suicide cables and test⟳ that same device using line to ground. Depending on how your place⟳ is wired, you may find⟳ that under an actual load⟳, your ground is really awful.”

“No, I'm not. That would only make⟳ sense⟳ if the grid power were persistently unreliable, which it isn't. Nor am I using a suicide cable.”

CEFR level