How power disturbances can effect your home and how to prevent them

The average home is filled with more electronics than ever before. Especially those who work from home, participate in remote learning, or have a gaming setup! In smart homes, even the refrigerator and doorbells are controlled by smart technology.

Technology is constantly providing us with new opportunities and luxuries, improving our day-to-day lives. We often take this for granted. That is, until a power disturbance hits. A power disturbance is defined as any change in power, be that voltage, current, or frequency, that interferes with the operation of your equipment.

Most of the technologies we have in our homes require clean, uninterrupted power to function properly. Due to this, power disturbances can actually have a more significant impact on your electronics than you may think. Ranging from minor surges to complete power outages, power disturbances can occur for a multitude of reasons.

Some of the potential causes of your power problems can include:

• Electrical storms
• Local construction projects
• Rodents and other vermin
• Electrical infrastructure
• Unstable utility power supply
• Weather conditions
• Human error

When power problems occur because of issues like these, it can cause power surges or strikes, power interruptions, a sag (also known as a brownout), or a swell or overvoltage.

Power Surges / Strikes
A power surge or strike is a sudden increase in the voltage or electrical current that is flowing through an electrical circuit. This can be extremely damaging to the internal components of your electronic devices.

Power Interruptions
When your power suddenly goes down it can put your whole life on hold. This can prevent you getting important things done, corrupt your data, or force you to miss out on important events. Power interruptions can be instantaneous, momentary, temporary, or sustained.

Sags / Brownouts
A sag is a reduction of AC voltage at a given frequency for up to a minute. They are usually caused by system faults or heavy startup currents. The problems caused by sags include damaged equipment, data corruption, and shorter life cycles, all of which are only apparent over time.

Swell / Overvoltage
This problem is caused by rapid increases in the AC voltage, the opposite issue to a sag. Swells and overvoltage problems can cause data errors, flickering of lights, degradation of electrical contacts, semiconductor damage, and insulation degradation.

How can you prevent this?

Power disturbances are not only inconvenient, they are also expensive. Dealing with power issues is frustrating enough on its own, let alone when you factor in the damage it is doing to your equipment and the price you will need to pay to rectify this. But is there a way to prevent this and avoid all the problems that go alongside it?

The answer is yes! Recent studies have shown that 75% of downtime incidents were actually preventable. With an APC UPS system, you can shield your valuable devices against power anomalies. Schneider Electric offers a range of APC UPS systems that have been designed for homes to act as both power surge protectors and power conditioners.

What UPS is right for you?

This is just a brief look at the APC UPS Range, if you require more Schneider Electric equipment for your business, you can check our Schneider Electric microsite for a wide range of APC products to suit your needs.

 

Other Schneider Electric products Available from Comms Express:

Server Racks & Accessories | NetBotz Security and Environmental Monitoring | Extended Warranty | Accessory Extended Warranty | Power Distribution Units | Uniterruptible Power Supply

 

If you require any further information on these or any other products that we stock here at Comms Express, please do not hesitate to contact our team who will be only too happy to help.

Until next time…