How to keep your home safe during Eskom load shedding

[mmacleod]

First appreciate that load shedding is completely unrelated to surges. Load shedding means appliances power off. That power off never damages an appliance.

Second, power restoration means voltage slowly increases due to the massive restart load. No surge or high voltage spike exists (other then in speculation). That slowly increasing voltage is ideal for electronics. And may be harmful to motorized appliances. Best to unplug motorized appliances until power is restored and stable after a few seconds.

Third, some power loss (not load shedding) can be created by a surge. IOW damage occurs during a surge and before power is lost. Then when power is restored, many who use observation as fact then assume power restoration caused that damage.

Fourth, an adjacent protector (or UPS) only claims to protect from a type of surge that is typically not destructive to appliances. It does nothing for load shedding. And does nothing on power restoration. Worse, it can sometimes make nearby appliance damage easier during a surge.

Protection from destructive surges requires something completely different. Also called a surge protector - creating much confusion. Whereas an adjacent plug-in protector can be grossly undersized to fail on a first surge (that promotes sales). The other and proven solution will harmlessly earth many direct lightning strikes without damage. This superior solution is also much less expensive since it is doing protection; not profits.

Quite honestly there seems to be a lot of misinformation in your post conflicting information I have been given over a long period of time from lots of very knowledgeable people.
Unless you can provide reasoning and/or sources for each of these claims of yours I'm going to disregard pretty much all of them.
To claim there is absolutely no relation between load shedding and surges is pretty much absurd.

 

[hj2k_x]

I'm also interested to hear the answer...

 

[Hermes14]

It is advisable to switch electronic equipment off before a power outage to protect your software as well as your hardware.
I was doing linux updates on my PC one evening when we had an unsuspected power cut.
When the power came back on I got a pleasant visit from a blue screen.
I battled my ass off to get my operating system functional again.
Dstv, DVRs and even some radios all have software & the can all crash if cut of unexpectedly.

My knowledge on electronics is minimal.
A few years back I was working for a large bank in South Africa.
A senior computer technician told me, a sudden drop in the power supply can cause certain electronic components, such as integrated circuits to malfunction due to the sudden reduction of heat as well as the sudden loss of electricity..
Running a computer solely on generator power without a UPS can also damage the computer in the long term because a generator doesn’t give a consistent flow of 220 volts and also delivers the current flow (amps) in spikes.

 

[Insight]

For best protection you need surge, brownout and restart protection especially on fridges and freezers, but all electronics suffer on brownout, and the short on off of power damages equipment.

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

My goodness there's some nonsense being thrown around here...

Firstly some damage can be caused as the power switches off, these transformers aren't designed to be switched on and off regularly so "smooth" on and off wasn't designed into them, damage as it's switched off is less likely though.

When it's switched on the entire neighbourhood is energised at once and EVERYTHING powers on(geysers, motors etc), this causes a voltage drop and consequently a spike in the current draw(hence the overload outages experienced after loadshedding). It is VITAL that as soon as the power goes off you switch off everything, this is when the damage occurs. It'll also help prevent your suburb going dark immediately after you've been turned back on.

What the poster above is talking about with the gradual increase of voltage being perfect for electronics I've no idea, firstly it doesn't happen it's a great big switch they throw and secondly a gradual ramping up of input voltage would fry electronics almost instantly. The rest of his post is also mostly drivel.

A surge protector will NOT help, at all... The voltage doesn't spike it dips, there are protective circuits for this(most UPS' have them) but an Ellies red plug or DB mounted protector is not this.

 

[supersunbird]

My goodness there's some nonsense being thrown around here...

Firstly some damage can be caused as the power switches off, these transformers aren't designed to be switched on and off regularly so "smooth" on and off wasn't designed into them, damage as it's switched off is less likely though.

When it's switched on the entire neighbourhood is energised at once and EVERYTHING powers on(geysers, motors etc), this causes a voltage drop and consequently a spike in the current draw(hence the overload outages experienced after loadshedding). It is VITAL that as soon as the power goes off you switch off everything, this is when the damage occurs. It'll also help prevent your suburb going dark immediately after you've been turned back on.

What the poster above is talking about with the gradual increase of voltage being perfect for electronics I've no idea, firstly it doesn't happen it's a great big switch they throw and secondly a gradual ramping up of input voltage would fry electronics almost instantly. The rest of his post is also mostly drivel.

A surge protector will NOT help, at all... The voltage doesn't spike it dips, there are protective circuits for this(most UPS' have them) but an Ellies red plug or DB mounted protector is not this.

I switch my plugs off at DB as soon as loadshedding starts (lights circuits stay on), switch it on 5 minutes after power has been restored, good enough protection?

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

I switch my plugs off at DB as soon as loadshedding starts (lights circuits stay on), switch it on 5 minutes after power has been restored, good enough protection?

Yip, do your geyser as well to help with the overload issue

 

[Enzo Matrix]

 

[supersunbird]

Yes, dogs don't need electricity Dogs are very useful to ones overall biological, electronic and physical security systems/layers.

 

[JohnHay]

I switch my plugs off at DB as soon as loadshedding starts (lights circuits stay on), switch it on 5 minutes after power has been restored, good enough protection?

And if you are not at home?

 

[westom]

What the poster above is talking about with the gradual increase of voltage being perfect for electronics I've no idea, firstly it doesn't happen it's a great big switch they throw and secondly a gradual ramping up of input voltage would fry electronics almost instantly.

To increase electronic life expectancy, an inrush current limiter is installed to even make a voltage rise slower. Why do we do that when so many make fearful claims about hardware damage due to voltage variation? Only the fewer actually do this stuff.

When that big switch closes, the milliseconds required for voltage to increase to full voltage is ... forever. Instantly to a human. Forever to appliances.

Motorized appliances want full voltage immediately. Electronics prefer voltage to rise slowly. Best is to power off major appliances before power restoration. However it is not essential since appliances are typically so robust as to not suffer damage on power restoration. Some motorized appliances even include a delay after power restoration - to increase life expectancy.

Voltage can drop so low that incandescent bulbs dim to 40% intensity. Even voltage that low is perfectly good for all computers. As even required in Intel's ATX standards. Some electronics are even more robust - will operate normally on extreme voltages below 85 volts and above 265 volts. Voltage variation is only problematic to computers when voltage drops so low that a computer must do a normal power off (without damage). Then unsaved data might be lost. No hardware damage as was required by international design standards even long before PCs existed.

Many fear damage from AC voltage variation only because others have told them to fear. Voltage variation is hard on motorized appliances. So the AC utility either provides sufficient voltage. Or cuts off power ... to not damage motorized appliances.

 

[supersunbird]

And if you are not at home?

Then the fridge motors are at risk?...