In today’s technological era, Electricity has become as essential as food and water. Industrial plants, homes, offices, restaurants, schools and literally every establishment and buildings we see around us use electricity to successfully perform their daily operations. However, electricity, like food and water becomes scarce when resources deplete, such as coal, natural gas and petroleum.
As a result, power generation companies are forced to allocate available amount of electricity to a huge number of consumers, thus power outages occur. Other factors why there are power outages are caused by nature such as earthquake, storms etc. And because a power outage is inevitable, every consumer must understand that home and office appliances need protection in order to avoid circuit damage and fire.
In the event that energy resources are scarce and calamities strike, everyone must learn how to protect appliances during a power outage. Here are 5 tips from Wikihow.com expert we can learn from.
- Use surge protecting power strips in your home. The quickest and least expensive solution for protecting appliances is plugging them into a power strip with a built-in surge protector. These power strips are usually equipped with a fuse that is designed to fail in the event of a voltage spike, cutting off power to your appliances and protecting them.
- Install a whole-house surge protector in your electrical panel. A more thorough and robust solution than using power strips is to install a snap-in surge protector directly into your electrical panel. A single protector of this type offers surge protection for your whole home, and can be installed easily if you are comfortable working in your electrical panel.
- Contact your electricity provider about meter-mounted surge protection. The most robust solution of all is to mount a surge protector along your incoming electrical line, just before your meter. This type of work must be done by a certified electrician and in accordance with your local utility provider’s restrictions.
- Install GFCI outlets throughout your home. In many countries, GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlets are required in new kitchens and bathrooms; they are the electrical outlets with red and black buttons labeled “Test” and “Reset.” These outlets monitor the electricity flowing into and out of each socket and shut off the flow if the difference exceeds a certain amount.
- Protect appliances from power outages using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). A UPS is type of large power strip that contains a backup battery. If any problems are detected in the incoming voltage (which includes both surges and power outages), the battery engages, allowing you to operate the appliance without interruption. This is especially useful for protecting desktop computers from outages that can cause lost work.
