Repair & Improve

More Power To You

Backup Generators Have Become a Necessity to Some

by Tom Kraeutler

Protecting your home from power problems has become a necessity of the new millennium.  According to a recent study, 75 percent of U.S. homeowners experienced a power outage in the last year.

So how do you protect yourself from these power problems? By setting up backup systems to protect mission-critical appliances from damage or destruction. Here’s where to begin:

WHOLE HOUSE GENERATORS – Generators can run on natural gas or gasoline, and some can re-power most of the homes critical systems within a short time of an outage.

SURGE SUPRESSION – Surges can occur from outside or inside the home. To protect yourself, you’ll need several types of devices:

• Lightning Rods – Good to protect against blasts of lightning hitting at or near your home. Lightning rods provide a “ground” path to divert this runaway power from harming your home’s electrical systems.
• Surge Arrestors – Surge arrestors are mounted inside your electrical panel and provide another protection against voltage spikes, which occur from the outside.
• Surge Suppressors - Surge suppressors provide the second stage of an interior defense system. Most suppressors resemble power strips with outlets, and protect equipment that's particularly sensitive to moderate surges such as computers, TVs, phones, and audio/video systems.

When shopping for surge suppressors, keep in mind that major qualitative differences exist. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for and finding out your suppressor didn’t work can be a very expensive lesson to learn.

BATTERY BACK-UPS – Probably the single most effective equipment to protect computers from damage is a battery back up. Known as an “uninterruptible power supply” or “UPS”, these small devices will not only protect your sensitive data from surges or spikes, they can also instantly restore power to your computer long enough to allow you to safely save your work and shut down the system.

Check out these sites for good tools and tips on protecting your power:

• Electric Generators Direct.com– Use the home wattage wizard to find out how much power you’ll need in the event of a blackout.
• Generac -  View a movie that explains step-by-step how stand-by generators protect you home from power failures.
• National Lightning Safety Institute – Get the facts on lightening and learn how to avoid becoming a victim.
• Energy Guide.com – Enter a few details on your home and learn what energy saving improvements makes the most sense.

Protecting your home from power problems has become a necessity of the new millennium. But with a little preplanning, the inconvenience of losing electricity can be left at just that.

Print Version

Search Related Topics: Electrical, Energy Savings, Fall, Spring, Storm Proofing, Summer, Winter...