Four ways to protect your appliances during load-shedding
Everyone is looking at cutting unnecessary spending, so here are some ways to protect your appliances during excessive power cuts
LOAD-SHEDDING is upon us once again and, as we saw it escalate from stage 2 to stage 4 without warning, it looks set to be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future.
Appliances, both large and small, take a hard knock when the electricity suddenly goes off, and while there is nothing you can do to protect against unscheduled power cuts, load-shedding is something that can be prepared for.
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In this economy, everyone is looking at cutting unnecessary spending, so here are some ways to protect your appliances against load-shedding.
Disconnect appliances
Perhaps the most obvious tip, but one which many people overlook, don’t think about or simply forget to do.
Provided Eskom and our local municipalities stick to the load-shedding schedule, this is something that is easily done and a habit everyone should adopt.
As well as staying safe, disconnecting appliances (actually unplugging, not just switching off) can also help conserve electricity.
Invest in surge protectors
You can buy an electric surge protector for your mains board as well as surge protector plug adapters from most hardware stores.
The role of a surge protector is to divert excess energy into its grounding wire when power levels spike above a level deemed acceptable.
Surge protectors for a mains board must be installed by a certified electrician.
Household insurance policies
While this is not a physical way of protecting household appliances, ensuring insurance policies are up-to-date will help in the unfortunate event that large, expensive items break down and there is no spare cash to replace them.
Obtaining expert advice from your insurance broker to take into account different circumstances and risk situations which may arise as a result of excessive power cuts, could also prove invaluable.
Use surge protecting power strips
This is perhaps the quickest and least expensive option.
These power strips have a built-in surge protector and are usually equipped with a fuse that is designed to fail in the event of a voltage spike.
This cuts off power to your appliances, protecting them against the surge.
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