First things first, what is the difference between a spike and a surge? A spike is a very short high voltage pulse of energy lasting only a few milliseconds, a surge lasts much longer, anywhere from a few milliseconds to a few minutes, but are usually much lower in voltage. Because a spike is a very short event, electrical equipment is generally not permanently affected by them, a surge is a different matter all together and is the focus of this blog.
Surges are caused by a range of events, some external and some internal. Examples of external events are abnormal activity from the Sun, electrical storms, a car hitting a power pole or a fault in the electrical supply, all of these occur outside the property and enter via the power lines. Examples of internal events are a fridge motor blowing, a lamp shorting or turning ceiling fans on/off, all of these events occur inside the property and are not delivered by the power lines. Have you ever experienced ‘lines’ or ‘static’ going through your TV when you turn a fan on or the fridge motor kicks in? Thats a localised surge and it could be damaging your TV every time it happens.
Power surges don’t just ‘blow’ or ‘pop’ electrical equipment, they wear them out. Ever heard someone say ‘They don’t build them like they use to?’ Well thats not always true. If you live in an area with bad power, you could be receiving a lot of surges that are damaging your equipment overtime, resulting in premature equipment death. The problem will also get worse, not better. Why? One major factor is urban sprawl. Think of it as water going through a hose. As the hose gets longer, more pressure is needed at the start to push the water through at the same rate. Electricity is the same. As new outer suburbs are established, they need to be provided with power. In order to get the power ‘pushed out’ to these new suburbs, the power stations and substations need to output more electricity to reach these new suburbs. (Yes its more complicated than that but the net effect is still the same). This results in suburbs close to the stations and substations receiving more than 240 volts, suburbs in the middle get 240volts (the goldilocks zone and these people probably have very few equipment failures) and the outer suburbs get less than 240volts. (Other products such as ‘THOR SMART POWER STATIONS’ or a ‘UPS’ are needed to ‘boost’ the voltages and protect the equipment in these areas)
Ok so now we have that covered, why does it matter? It matters because it helps to understand the threat and what should be done to prevent it. When talking with customers about the threat of power surges or explaining to a customer why their computer has ‘blown’ or why they have ‘lost data’, one of the most common things I hear is ‘But I have a safety switch?’.
At this point I want to make it clear that a ‘Safety switch’ does not protect your equipment against power surges. A safety switch is designed to save lives by cutting the power when it detects the current is unbalanced between the energised and neutral conductors; indicating someone maybe receiving an electric shock. It does nothing to monitor the level of voltage coming down the lines and will not protect electrical equipment.
Some customers have had an electrician install a surge protection device in the switch box. This is a fantastic thing to do, but understand it’s not a 100% solution as this will only protect against external surges, internal surges are already inside the property and don’t go anywhere near the switch box, in other words, if your fridge motor blows, your computer may well be toast (and I’ve seen it happen)
So what’s the solution? The only solution is to install localised surge boards, but not just any board will do, and this is what I hinted at at the start. Ok, so what makes a surge board a quality surge board? Below is a list of items that you should check off when purchasing a surge board.
That is very attention-grabbing, You are an excessively skilled blogger.
I’ve joined your feed and look ahead to in search of more of your fantastic post.
Additionally, I have shared your web site in my social
networks