“What if” question regarding a whole house generator.

What if there is an outage and your house is wired for a generator inlet but not an interlock.

Scenario 1: You fire up your generator that’s already plugged in, but the main is still on.

Would the generator even start, because now you’re trying to power the whole grid? Does a standard meter allow power to back feed to the grid?

Scenario 2: Same as 1, except the generator isn’t plugged in, you start it, and then plug it in. Does the generator big and die because it’s trying to power the whole grid?

Scenario 3: Main is off, generator is connected and running. Power comes back on, so you flip the main. Does this turn your generator into a fireball or does nothing happen? I understand it depends on the grid phase vs your generator phase, but I’m just genuinely curious.

**Disclaimer: I have a generator with an inlet and interlock, but friends ask me about my setup and about generators a lot in general, so I want to make sure I’ve got my facts straight.

Thank you for humoring me if you read this.