Power Surges Fact or Fiction

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A bizarre sequence of events has got me thinking that maybe the economic damage that load shedding is causing.... is.... believe it or not... more sinister than we realise.

It started with my tv; and then my father in laws, and then my brothers. They all popped their tubes. Since the new load shedding cycle started. Two of these were less than a year old and both with 5 year warranties.
At the same time my aircons started popping. Three in two months.Technicians tell me that the compressors cannot handle the power surge and cook themselves. Two of these aircons are also still under warranty. Thank the stars.

Surgeons disaster got me thinking that if a substation can literally explode from current overload. is it posssible that these spikes in power supply could be responsible for more damage than we realise.
 
Start plugging everything into UPS's ;/. Atleast if will keep a constant flow off power to the hardware. As for the costs i can just "lolz"
 
Absolutely sunburst, certain pieces of equipment are not designed to be switched off and on like compressors in fridges and aircons, also power dips and surges are very harmful to electronic equipment.
 
Absolutely sunburst, certain pieces of equipment are not designed to be switched off and on like compressors in fridges and aircons, also power dips and surges are very harmful to electronic equipment.

So if smokers can sue tobacco companies surely we can hold the state responsible for personal loss from incompetence.
 
From what I have been told, you don't have a chance in hell.
 
I also reckon that Seans chiller and also Mashries were victims of load shedding. After load shedding one day my chiller thermostat went to frikken 99 and cooled the tank down to 22 or so, anyway let it rest for a bit and it seems ok for now (holding thumbs). I'm not sure it's good to plug a chiller into a baby 600VA ups or a surge protector, can anyone enlighten me?

Also while on the subject of surge protectors I see there are 2 ellies (I think) 5 way adapters on the market with surge protection. One of them is R70-120 and the other is about R200+ but has a double sized plug on the end. Both of them say pretty much the same thing on the packaging. Does anyone know the diffs?
 
I'm not sure it's good to plug a chiller into a baby 600VA ups or a surge protector, can anyone enlighten me?
No. Back in the day when I didn't know any better I plugged my entire tank into a 1000VA ups, well it kinda went bang and died. Check the wattage rating on the chiller, but I doubt it will last longer than 1 minute on a 600VA ups.
 
You do get devices for power surges, you can even get them for the house but at a cost. They will keep the voltage very stable. We get voltage from 190 - 210, and my 1kva one keeps the voltage at 230 , witch it supposed to be.

Some of the small devices only protect against hight voltage surges. A on-line UPS will also protect against surges.
 
Eskom actually advises you to plug out all devices when load shedding is in progress due to the potential damage that can occur when the network tries to stabilize when the power comes back online.
 
Geez...any idea how many plugs my tank has... forget the house.
Worried about my chiller. nWould switching offr the mains and breakers help.
 
Eskom actually advises you to plug out all devices when load shedding is in progress due to the potential damage that can occur when the network tries to stabilize when the power comes back online.

Um, great but my areas schedule is 10:00-14:00 and it seems sometimes the middle of the night on tuesday nights. Can't exactly leave it off the whole day while I'm at work...
 
Oh btw:

Understanding electricity 101:

DC - Direct Current
AC - Alternating Current
ANC - Absolutely No Current :(
 
Hi friend got 4 surge protectors that plugs into one, another funny you speak about it, i had load shedding tonight for 2 hours and when every thing switched on my surge protectors lights wear on, thank god for that, i got those protectors from incredible connection very expensive ones but they work well
 
I too have nearly ALL my multi-plugs being of the type that has surge/voltage spike protectors built-in.

I have bought MANY of my multi-plugs while living the Europe.

I wonder why a lot of South African multi-plugs do not come standard with surge-protectors?

I have not experienced any electricity issues so far when the power-comes back on..... Most likely due to 95% of my multi-plugs are surge-protected.
 
shit I plugged my chiller in yesterday for the first time...will go unplug it now...
 
The entire problem comes when the power is switched back on, there is a chap in Durban at the moment testing different inverters and the results are dismal most of the power out of the inverters is worse than that coming out of generators. The best thing to do is just swith your electronic devices off at the DB and leave the light circuits on this way you will know when the power comes back, then once the power is on again give it a couple of minutes to stabilize and then switch on again.
 
Only problem is Alan - that most of us work - we leave work VERY early in the mornings, and a lot (not all) of the power load shedding happens during the day-time. We cannot all rush home to go and do this.

I can understand doing this with PC's, radio's, hi-fi's, TV's, etc. BUT, what about our fridges/freezers? We cannot switch them off?

Any ideas from anyone what we should do with our fridges/freezers?
 
Rory - I know Ellies does a multi plug with surge protector, think they are about R200, but they carry a R20 000 garentee for damages to appliances using it,

One solution which will help, is if you know you have a cut from 12h00 to 14h30, then after the cut has started at 12h00 turn off your appliances, wait for the power to come back on at 14h30, then wait a futher say 10 minutes and then turn them on. This will mean that your appliance is not actually connected when the power is restored, as this is when the surge accures.

Hope that made sense!
 
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