Tony Murdoch, an electrical engineer from Farrarmere, said the detrimental effects are caused by a sudden surge of electricity.
“When the supply to a specific section of an electrical network is interrupted, most appliances in the network remain ‘switched on’,” he explained.
“The exceptions are when consumers have generator switches and/or inverter back-up supplies.
“The initial surge when the system is re-energised often momentarily exceeds those ratings and certainly erodes the life span of the appliance.”
The Farrarmere resident said electronic equipment and LED lights are especially affected.
According to Murdoch, one of the ways to negate this effect is to install a mains recovery buzzer at the main distribution board and to switch off all the circuits at the distribution board for the duration of the power outage.
“Upon re-energising the network after the load shedding the buzzer will alert the customer to the mains recovery, where after they can systematically switch each circuit back to the ‘on’ position,” he said.
He added that people should, ideally, install an inverter in such situations.
Click here to see Benoni’s load shedding schedule.
