If you’ve ever had all of your electricals suddenly shut off or had a circuit breaker trip after plugging in an appliance, then you already know what a power surge is. It’s when there is more power in a circuit than the circuit can handle.
In most cases, a power surge will just trip the breaker, but in some situations, power surges can cause electrical fires, which can destroy your appliances or even your home.
This article will explain what causes power surges, the warning signs to look out for, and how to prevent a power surge from happening to you.
Table of Contents
The Risks of Power Surges
The worst-case scenario is scary. Suppose you are sleeping and a power surge happens that causes an electrical fire to break out in your home. You wake up and notice the smell of smoke, but it’s too late; the flames have engulfed your escape route.
More often than not, a power surge will be more likely to fry your appliances, destroying your laptop, phone, or television rather than your whole home. Still, electrical fires do happen, and power surges are one of the leading causes.
Causes of Power Surges
There are a few different potential causes of power surges. If you plug in an appliance that draws more power than your circuit can handle, then the circuit becomes overloaded, and a power surge occurs.
Now, there are also some things that are out of your control that can cause a power surge, such as a storm damaging a transformer or pesky animals getting into your wiring, but for the most part, power surges can be prevented, especially if you are aware of the warning signs to look out for.
Signs of Power Surges
One of the most obvious signs of an imminent power surge is when a certain breaker keeps tripping every time you turn a certain device on; this means that the device is drawing too much power and needs to be on its own circuit or at least one with fewer devices connected to it.
Protection and Prevention
By making sure that all of your big appliances are on their own circuit, or at the very least are attached to a circuit with a surge protector, you can mitigate the odds of a power surge causing a fire or damaging your devices.
Another good idea is to ensure that you are using high-quality safety switches in your home and make sure that you protect your phone lines. It’s also a good idea to unplug appliances that are not in use.
Conclusion
Chances are that if you take a few basic precautions like using surge protectors, not overloading your circuits, and unplugging your devices when you aren’t using them, you’ll never have to worry about a power surge causing a serious fire in your home.