Power surges can cause significant damage, but while they have become more common in South Africa due to regular load shedding, precautions can be taken to help protect the valuable goods and the people in your home.
Surge protectors control power surges to prevent and alleviate damage to electronic equipment caused by voltage spikes, and circuit breakers are safety devices designed to prevent fires by protecting electrical circuits from damage caused by an overcurrent or short circuit.
By relying on surge protectors and circuit breakers, you can go a long way in protecting your electronic appliances and devices, as well as your family.
Surge Protectors
Affordable and easy to use, surge protectors can help extend the lifespan of your electronics, controlling intense power surges caused by various things including outages, lightning strikes and faulty wiring.
Specifically made to actively defend electronic equipment against voltage spikes, surge protectors handle irregularities and maintain an even flow of power into devices, rerouting any excess electricity and allowing only a defined amount to pass through to a device.
Though it is not important to protect all your electronics from power surges, surge protectors are very useful in protecting sensitive or valuable appliances such as televisions, computers, gaming consoles and home theatre systems.
Without a surge protector, a power spike can shorten the lifespan of a device, wipe out the data or destroy the entire system, while numerous surges can slowly degrade electronic devices.
Whole-home surge protectors are also available. These devices are installed in the main entry point of power to your home, detecting voltage spikes and diverting excess current safely through your home’s grounding path.
It\’s vital to know the joules rating of a surge protector to ensure it\’s suitable for the appliances it will protect, and choosing the best option can become complex when considering the UL rating, cramping voltage and response time, so it\’s best to get professional advice.
Circuit Breakers
An additional form of safety and protection, circuit breakers keep the wiring inside your house from catching on fire.
When there’s too much electrical current flowing through wires (which are rated to handle only a certain amount) they can overheat and start a fire which can put you and your loved ones in danger.
This can be caused by too many appliances being placed on one circuit, an appliance that is pulling more electrical current than it should, or a short circuit.
However, if a circuit has too many amps flowing through it, a circuit breaker will \’trip\’, cutting off the flow of electricity and preventing wires from overheating and igniting their insulation.
While some options like surge plug adapters are simple solutions that you can implement yourself, surge protectors need to be installed on DB boards and should be done by a certified electrician.
If you\’re thinking of protecting your home, your family and your valuable appliances against regular, unpredictable power surges, we can put you in touch with technicians who can help find and install the best options for you. Visit us at https://www.whizzoh.co.za/ or download the Whizzoh app.
