If we experience irregular power, as in power surges, can this harm electric appliances? Will a surge protector take care of the problem? Should appliances be unpluged before the bewitching hour?

-- Anonymous, February 09, 1999

Answers

Unfortunately, I have already experienced power surges at my residence and my neighbor has indicated to me that he has experienced power surges as well. I would recommend surge protectors. The higher the joule rating of the surge protector the more protection for the appliance. I do not know if the power surges I have experienced can be attributed to utility testing or other phenomena. I live in a somewhat rural area. Hope that helps.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 1999

Where I live, the power-co will stick on a whole-house surge- supressor for about $6 a month. Useless for brown-outs though...

-- Anonymous, February 10, 1999

For small spikes and surges, I would think that a good surge protector would work. If you get brown-outs or lose power, I highly recommend that you shut off the circuit breakers to any large appliances, including your furnace, A/C, fridge, etc. Leave at least 1 circuit with a light on so you know when the power has been restored, and then wait a while to make sure.

I personally know someone who's furnace and fridge were fried when power went out during an ice storm and power came back on in fits and starts. It's murder on appliances.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 1999

Adele, my father has worked with and repaired motors for fifty years. When I asked him about power surge damage, he said that in his experience the most damage is caused by brownouts, less by power spikes. I concur with the precautions already suggested.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 1999

I'm FAR from an expert in this, but some of my experience relates. Agree with Bonnie that brownouts are more common than are spikes and surges.

We learned this the hard way. By the time a few months passed after the 1994 Northridge, CA earthquake, 3 of 4 of our computers were toast, and all had been plugged into "surge protectors" during those months. We were 4 miles from the epicenter. Literally thousands of aftershocks followed the quake for the first few months after. We had lots power irregularities (brownouts) and a few blackouts (after the main blackout which was 4 days). It took me a while to put two and two together as to WHY the computers failed. This led me to study up a bit. I learned that low voltage happens a lot, that computers don't like low voltage, and most surge protectors don't protect you against it.

We installed a "sine wave" UPS, with software that monitors the power. The graphical software told the story, it was plain to see the wide swings of voltage occurring. Occasional spikes, but mostly sags. This UPS does [at least] three important things, (1) steps down high voltage and boosts low voltage (between 95 to 145 VAC) to an average of 117VAC, which the computers like. (2) provides surge protection and EMI/RFI filtering, and (3) Should the voltage drop below a certain threshold (about 95), the UPS switches the computers to a reserve battery until the voltage comes back within normal range.

I learned that the cheaper ("non sine wave") UPS'es (such as the APC BackUPS) do not do #(1) which was our biggest concern, brownout protection. They only provide a battery backup. (I am not sure about the surge protection). The APC SmartUPS, which we got for the two main computers, does provide it and is more expensive, but most certainly worth it.

Since we didn't need battery backup on the other computers, we put those on line conditioners (about a $80-100 item). These line conditioners smooth the voltage, and also provide surge suppression and EMI/RFI filtering.

So, computers aside, how would this relate to Y2k and what to do with other appliances? There are two situations of concern I see.

(1) The power is on, but it may be "dirty power". (I really have no clue if this is realistic -- are Y2k issues likely to affect the quality of the available power, or just whether there IS power or not?) Just in case, I am thinking it would be good to put any important appliances on the line conditioners. (With brownouts, sometimes they are subtle enough that you don't know they are happening, but can still be damaging.) But before doing this, I will need to do more checking as to whether that makes sense for the particular appliance, as it may not.

(2) Power is off and you don't know when it might come back on. What Ted said. Turn off all circuits except one. Keep a lightbulb on that circuit switched on so you can monitor when power is safely back up.

Just some thoughts. Comments or corrections welcome.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 1999