LOAD SHEDDING
ESKOMS Load shedding has become a major issue in South Africa and looking for ways and means to protect your appliances to avoid costly repairs on all home appliances and electrical units.
TIPS TO HELP YOU FIGHT LOAD SHEDDING
WHEN IS LOAD SHEDDING?
It is paramount that you know when load shedding occurs so that you can put your safe practises in place to combat load shedding.
Click for current load shedding schedule
http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za/
BETTER WAYS TO CHARGE CELLULAR DEVICES
It is advisable to get a reliable power bank for your mobile devices and tablets you can also use your phone for this. Phones are important in business and for safety.
BATTERY POWERED LED LIGHTS
Battery hand help led lights will help immensely and are pretty powerful.
APPLIANCES
We find that we are getting an increased amount of CPU, power supply and MAIN BOARD repairs from load shedding the surge of electricity is unstable and when the power resumes your appliances are blown.
DISTRIBUTION BOARD SURGE PROTECTOR (SPD)
You get 2 types of SPD’s, CLASS1 and CLASS2, class one SPD’s are useful for lightning strikes but a lightning strike are not the same as load shedding surges, CLASS2 SPD’s are recommended for load shedding. CLASS1 for lightning strikes. It is recommended that you opt for higher rated SPD’s for sureges of up to 10Ka.
UNINTERRUPTABLE POWER SUPPLY (UPS)
A UPS can be expensive so be decisive on which boards and circuits you would like to protect, ask for the advice of a professional to advise you on which appliances you would like to protect.
Typically you would want to protect high end audio visual equipment Tv’s and pc’s
POWER STRIPS
BREAKER-TYPE
Your last line of defence is your power strips of which there are 2 one is more coast effective and recommended. We suggest breaker-type power strips, they are the cheapest and simply trips in the wake of the power surge.
POWER CONDITIONERS
This is the top end of the breaker strip solution there definitely are reasons why it is more costly, they reduce noise in AC electronics such as hum, your AUDIO and VISUAL appliances will produce better graphics and crisper cleaner sound, this will also extend the life of the equipment. Your appliances will also receive stable power.
UNPLUG YOUR APPLIANCES
You can also simply unplug appliances use the ESKOM load shedding guide to know when to do this.
BATTERY POWER/SOLAR
You can also negate load shedding by using solar energy from the SUN the energy will be stored in a battery which will turn on during load shedding.
GENERATORS
A generator may help but may not protect your appliances as you will need to put it on and it also takes time to be put on however this noisy and pollutant heavy option is necessary in emergency situations.
INSURANCE
Yes, check the details on all your insurance policies to make sure that you haven’t missed the opportunity to repair your appliances this might be covered under many policies if you are looking for surge protection or extended warranties on your appliances contact www.uplus.co.za
References