Power surge smokes household appliances

[davedottcom]

Power surge smokes household appliances
Mon Aug 1,11:34 AM ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian electricity company will reimburse a number of people after a power surge ruined dozens of home appliances and tools, a company spokesman said.

"Smoke was suddenly coming out of the phone, the fax machine and the video recorder," Luc Debondt told the daily Gazet Van Antwerpen.

The company accidentally raised power levels to 380 volts around the eastern town of Turnhout instead of the normal 220 volts, spokesman Jean-Pierre Blomme told VRT television.

"There would be damage to electrical equipment in a great number of houses," he said, adding the company would pay for damage to machines ranging from dishwashers and drinks vending machines to video players and stereos.

 

[allenwayne]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

maybe in Belgan, but here, in the good olde us of A,there is to much payolla and graft for something as dispicable as a poco owning up for there mistakes

 

[luke warmwater]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

Originally posted by davedottcom:


"Smoke was suddenly coming out"

 

[charlie tuna]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

dave,
a friend of mine called me with a similar problem. he got home from work and most of his appliances were out of commision!!! he thought "lightning strike"? i opened his panel and didn't see anything out of order? then noticed the ground wire going to his home's water pipe --- all the insulation was melted off the wire and dripped onto the floor like wax!!! i then opened the meter socket and found the ground wire into the meter can in the same condition? this instant and through meltdown had to be caused by some serious current flow!! it did not appear to me that it was caused by lightning!! while we were working at the meter socket, his next door neighbor came out and told us about a fire that occured in the house behind us! he did know anything other than the fire department was there? i told my buddy to go over and ask his neighbor behind him about the fire!

this neighbor explained that the power company had changed the pad mounted transformer in his back yard and made a mistake. when they energized it,it caused a fire in this house's utility room. the power company had already been there and was paying for all the damage.

what happened was they wired the transformer wrong and energized the neutral with the transformer's secondary hot lead and then energized it. this of course caused a high current flow back through the ground and at the same time energized the neutral to a voltage level of 120 volts. any 120 volt appliance connected to the opposite phase leg was immeadiately exposed to 240 volts. in his house it wiped out his tv--micro--range--clock--vcr--cable box and of course the ground wire!!! it told us the best ground was back to the water system in this case! the wire to the ground rod was not damaged! of course the power company did not volenteer any information until he put them on notice--but then they sent a representative out and payed for everything

 

[templdl]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

The money used to pay for damage doesn't magically come from the POCO. It's not going to come out of the persons pocket who is responsible. The question is where does the POCO gtet the money from in the first place? If electric bills were set to cover the POCO cost to generate and distribute electricty and then they commit to paying people for damage, they will have to collect more money from their customers. Higher electric rates.

 

[volt101]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

Luke,
Do they put the smoke in the wires or do they manufacture it at the power plant and sent it down to your home via the wires? I have often wondered this.
Jim

 

[charlie b]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

I think the smoke is inherent in the natural materials that are used in the manufacturing of electrical equipment. In fact, smoke is part of all natural materials. To prove this, all you need to do is look at the smoke contained in a forest. One good lightning strike and all the smoke comes out of the trees!

 

[steve66]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

Our local power company would probably charge extra for the smoke

 

[luke warmwater]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

Originally posted by volt101:
Luke,
Do they put the smoke in the wires or do they manufacture it at the power plant and sent it down to your home via the wires? I have often wondered this.
Jim

From what I understand, smoke is produced at the power plant and flows along the wires via some sort of cappilarry action. When you let the smoke out, things tend to not work anymore.

But, there must be smoke included in certain types of equipment, such as transformers, to boost any low smoke level that could be caused by some sort of leakage.

I really haven't studied up on it that much, but the smoke has got to be in there, waiting to escape.

 

[D.Rater]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

Please refrain from further dicussion of the smoke issue. Some 'greennut' will think it's real and demand "smoke free power"

 

[templdl]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

D.Rater
Yes, and then they will save money be eliminating circuit breakers and replace them with "smoke detectors."

 

[69boss302]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

Actually I think the POCO's would like everybody to believe the smoke issue. Then they can start charging an extra for adding it into their power.

Or better yet they will come out with a generator that puts less smoke into the wires so you won't have as much damage from an electrical fire. But of course this generator will be the most highly technically advanced and will have to be paid for out of increased utility bills.

 

[charlie b]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

Yea. Just like when they came out with "unleaded" gas, and charged us more for it. Tell me they weren't selling that leftover lead on the black market somewhere.

 

[templdl]

Re: Power surge smokes household appliances

Unleaded Gas? They decided that they wanted even more money in the Milwaukee area and it is a law in the surrounding counties the alcohol would be added. Another excuse to increase the price of gas. It was interestng to note that while traveling through Oklahoma a couple of months ago the gas available with alcohol was less expensive and was higher in octane than unleaded gas.