It is generally understood that lightning, wind, trees, ice storms, utility switching and maintenance operations can cause power quality problems. What is less understood is that as much as 80% of the power quality problems can be traced to electrical disturbances that occur in the home or office. Overloaded circuits or faulty or inadequate wiring are often the source of the problem. Events that are considered harmless such as an air conditioner or furnace fan starting can often cause a problem. Other equipment that often causes electrical disturbances in the home or office includes: refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, clothes dryers, sump pumps, grain drying equipment, coping machines, elevators, and the list goes on. It's important to understand the magnitude of the problem and the importance of protecting sensitive electronic and computer equipment.
The equipment problems usually associated with electrical disturbances generally fall into three groups:
- Disruptive: This type of failure includes confused logic, lost files, corrupted data and system lockup. These failures are often blamed on hardware or software problems but in many instances they are the result of an electrical disturbance.
- Dissipative: These are often low magnitude disturbances that cause little or no visible damage, but components will not work properly. These types of disturbances are often cumulative in effect, a series of low magnitude events over weeks or months can eventually cause the failure of components.
- Destructive: These are high magnitude events. Damage is usually visible and often catastrophic. These are generally associated with a lightning strike or similar event.
Fortunately, there is something you can do to help protect your equipment from these types of electrical disturbances. Northern Plains offers a quality line of TVSS (transient voltage surge suppressors) and UPS systems (uninterruptible power supply) specifically designed to protect your expensive electronic and computer equipment. Selecting the appropriate device for your application can be confusing, the NPEC staff is available to assist you in making that selection. Many of the products we offer have a warranty that will replace your equipment if the device fails to protect it. NPEC can provide protective devices for most of your expensive electronic or computer equipment.
Call us today for more information.