Sudden power outages, power surges, thunderstorms, and showers – many dangers lie in wait for household appliances, especially in a country house. How do you avoid losing all equipment at once or one device at a time? What can be done, and how much does it cost? Here are the best solutions to protect your household appliances from power surges.
Relay-Breakers, or Voltage Monitoring Relays
Quite an effective and
always inexpensive way. The breaker relay opens the electrical circuit when the voltage in the mains rises or falls to specific values. A voltage surge is everything that goes beyond these limits. Sometimes the surges are powerful. For example, when an overhead line breaks in the private sector, a line wire hitting a neutral wire causes a line voltage jump to 380-400 V instead of 210-230 V (the norm for a single-phase network).
When the relay interrupted the current supply, it begins to check the voltage parameters every few seconds. If it is within normal limits and is stable, the supply of electricity will resume. Having this device will save you the cost of replacements and regular repairs.
Surge Protectors
If the voltage goes beyond the normal range, the stabilizer normalizes the voltage precisely to 220 V. But if the voltage rises critically (for example, 250 V and higher in a single-phase circuit), it will turn off the electricity supply. After the voltage in the network stabilizes, the device will resume supplying current.
The voltage stabilizer is installed on one outlet for one device, on a separate large electricity distribution point (for example, a water heater-washing machine-dishwasher link), or for the entire network. You need to take into account the total power consumption of all connected devices. In networks with a rated voltage of 220V, a single-phase stabilizer is used. In 380V networks – one three-phase or three single-phase stabilizer.
Smart Sockets
They were created not at all to protect devices from voltage surges, but for something completely different: for example, so that the devices turn on and off according to a user-created schedule, so that he can see the energy consumption, so that he can turn on and off the equipment connected to the smart outlet from anywhere in the world: was would be Wi-Fi.
This function can
save the equipment. For example, you are not at home, and a neighbor writes a post on the social network: “We now have such a hurricane!” or “This is a thunderstorm!” with a bunch of frightening photos – it is at this time that there is a high probability that the wires will break and the voltage will jump. However, you can also follow the weather maps – now there are a lot of them. Then you can play it safe and turn off large equipment: refrigerator, dishwasher, or washing machine – everything that could work in your absence.
