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/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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258374 No.258374 [Reply] [Original]

my fiancee's parents live in a house where they are constantly losing appliances due to "power surges", etc. They live in a foresty area with unstable power supply.

Anyway, would GFI outlets protect these appliances? A simple surge protector strip?

thanks

>> No.258375

A simple surge protector might work. Don't go hooking the stove or fridge up to one though. I know they make beefier ones for heavy duty appliances though. A simple one should be fine for most low end home electronics but I'd spend the money for a mid range one for things like LCD TVs and computers. I look into whole house solutions if you have the money though.

>> No.258377

>>258375
true. wouldnt GFI protectors be a start to a whole house solution? My understanding is that they automatically trip themselves when they detect mismatched currents, but maybe they are only useful for appliances that are running

>> No.258381

>>258374
Which third world country do they live in?

>> No.258380

In my opinion they should invest in a whole house surge protector, and buy a good one. That'll help with the power surges combined with premium surge protector power bars for the appliances. Also I would call the local Hydro company and get them to check the lines. I had to replace a customers meter base due to the insides being rotten causing there to be a huge different between the voltage over the phases and neutral. Licensed Electrician btw.

>> No.258387

>>258380
This.

Few things to note OP.
GFI outlets only cut off when current leaks from one supply wire to another source (IE, through YOU to the ground) rather than returning down the neutral.
That what Ground Faul Interrupt comes from.
A GFI will happily let a fucking lightning bolt pass on through as long as it comes back through the other side.

A small surge protector (the kind built into power strips) are made with Varistors. Since they commonly have a thermal fuse built in, they are one time use and ineffective once a high transient hits.

Get a suppression system or you'll waist money replacing surge protectors and equipment.

>> No.258388

>>258387
>>258380
thanks so much

>> No.258494

>>258374
The simplest thing I can think of is switching your house over to battery power.

Those would be charged via the normal electric coming into the house. Then the house system would run off the batteries. It would essentially make the house system into a UPS. That might be great for power outages too, for a short time until the batteries run out. But if you have a generator/solar trickle charger/wind turbine you can recharge them.

It would be some what expensive depending on your energy needs per day. My entire house can run on a single 5000W inverter hooked to a few deep cycle marine 'car' batteries without trouble. No single thing goes over 1600W. So, it works for me.

>> No.258530

You can get surge protectors that are designed for lightning strikes, they usually have a connected equipment guarentee (in my case its $75,000), basically, if there is a power surge or lightning strike and my equipment gets fucked i get 75 thousand. These protectors cost in the neighborhood of $50, monster makes some uber ones for around $75 that actually clean the power (normalizes the sine wave esp. what would be caused by improperly grounded equipment)

Well worth the investment for media center, computers, etc.

http://www.thesource.ca/estore/product.aspx?language=en-CA&catalog=Online&category=SurgeProt
ectors&product=6118110

The one i use. It was on sale. There are even better ones out there.

>> No.258555

>>258530
>surge protector
>designed for lightning strikes
>no trollface.jpg
their insurance might cover it, but by no means will it actually protect anything it's connected to.

http://www.kiesub.com/prostores/servlet/-strse-200/power-conditioner,-line-voltage,/Detail

You're looking for a 'line conditioner'
If you have brownouts as well, you should get a UPS + Line conditoner. Be careful about buying a monster product, or anything else related to music and noise goblins. They often don't even do what they advertise.

http://www.dansdata.com/gz039.htm

tl-dr; Power conditioners that actually do anything aren't very expensive, but they are big and heavy. There is a LOT of snake oil on the market that does absolutely nothing though.

>> No.258593

>>258494
That would cost a fortune dummy

>> No.258781

Electricianfag here.

I would start by installing a decent quality surge diverter into the main switchboard.

Then I would be installing on-line UPS systems on anything of value (home theatre, computers, stereo systems etc).

If you can afford a decent line filter in your switchboard too, do that as well.


The surge diverters in your switch board will take care of over voltages for the whole house, as will a switchboard mounted line filter, while the UPS systems will protect the sensitive stuff from noise, under voltage and loss of power.