We have the neighborhood youth over once a week for “Taco Night”…a night of games, fun and fellowship. A couple weeks ago, during the festivities, a storm brewed up and power went out for several hours. Yea! I broke out the flashlights, and backyard goofiness ensued in the torrential downpour.
Power was eventually restored later that night, but started surging throughout the house. Water pipes and other metal items were slightly electrified. I unplugged what I could before several things in the house blew. 2 TVs, garage door opener, fan, blue ray dvd player, coffee pot, computer speakers and a few other items blew…all kaput. Everything else on surge protectors was fine.
Turns out the ground to the power pole outside snapped, causing the surges. My house ground must not be very good either as that should have helped prevent surging.
Anyhow…insurance, electric co. and home warranty will not cover a bit of it…either under the deductible or not covered under an “act of god”.
Long story short…put your valuable electronics on surge protectors! Lesson learned…
Electrified pipes? :~ Even if it just “slightly”.
Sometimes when there has been flickering power / flickering brown outs, I turn off half the circuit breakers. I particularly go for fridge and other circuits with expensive items or items that are just a pain to replace.
Our electricty drops from 125V down to as low as 92V, my APC UPS backup battery has been going nuts. Over 500 incidents in the last 6 weeks. We’ve had the power company out twice, they replaced the ground at the transformer as well as our meter. Same stuff, nothing solved. Reckon we get to start replacing breakers. Not sure where to go from here.
When we had that happen the neutral from the pole to the house was completely ruined. One side of the power in the house was high and one side was low. Burning out ballasts left and right when hooking up high drain items causing one side to spike pass normal voltages.
It might be stable for hours, then act up for several minutes solid. Or it might act up for only a few seconds at a time but only when you DON’T have the DMM plugged in. lol
Not the wind, not the AC units kicking in, can’t figure it out.
We’ve got a night stand light that is one of those 300W halogens with a dimmer, usually only turn it on just barely…it’ll drop down really dim or even completely off then pop back up, the ceiling fan slows and makes an audible strain sound then suddenly all is well again. Until next time.
I live maybe 5 miles from a power production plant (HL&P)…the power I think fluctuates up close, I keep blowing out those curly q lights, like in weeks (instead of months or years as claimed)
When I was younger a transformer on the line behind the house I live in now exploded after a lightening strike blew it up…the concussion of the sound was enough to blow an old wooden door that I was trying to run thru to get inside from the lightening (scared the bejesus out of me) happened so fast, could taste metal, hair on neck stood up BOOOOOOM, sparks everywhere
Sux that you lost all that…I wonder if it just blew some fuses that you might be able to replace
How is this possible, and you use 110V right. Over here we use 220V and I haven’t heard something like that happend, ever, only way is if the thunder hits right at your house.
Found a blown ceramic fuse inside one TV. Ordered replacement, and hopefully that is the only thing wrong.
Also found a bulging capacitor in the blue ray player. I ‘tested’ it using an ohmeter, then voltmeter. Seemed to be holding a charge and releasing it slowly. Not sure I know how to test it correctly, though. Fuse seems to be ok…but it is black and not like any fuse I have seen before. It is soldered in and shaped like a little black box…no window to see blown filament.
Going thru all the other items and searching for any obvious signs of damage, blown fuses etc. I guess I think I’m some sort of repairman now that I have a soldering iron and a cheapo Harbor Freight DMM…lol
From what repairman/tech said, anytime you do not have a sufficient ground (pole and/or house), then you get some really weird stuff going on. Turn on one item and power surges in another room/appliance, while it runs lower in another part of the house. I’d turn on/off one light in the house, and a fan in another room would go crazy/slow down. The tech further explained that the ground balances out the power in the entire house. I can’t explain it other than in small pea-brained layman terms… :*
That sounds very scary. Never went through anything like that. Closest was a neighbors house that was struck. From the sound of it…I never wanted to be any closer!
Found one blown fuse so far…have a few more items to go through. I have the guts of several appliances/electronics strewn over every table. My wife is gonna kill me when she gets home!
If the 0 wires goes in a 230VAC 3 phase system, a lot of strange damage will happen to everything running between phase and 0.
I would guess that was the problem there too, US have 110-0-110, if the 0 looses it connection to the transformer, the two 110 volt will jump up and down depending on load.
Yes, I believe you are correct. This is what tech tried to explain to me at the time because he was measuring about twice the voltage that should be. Is the ‘0’ called neutral ground?
