[FoxNews]A small town's sudden power surge fried tech gear inhundreds of homes

On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 22:13:00 -0000, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 02/08/2017 05:00 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 21:55:06 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 02:46 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:31:50 -0000, Mr. Man-wai Chang
wrote:

A small town's sudden power surge fried tech gear in hundreds of homes

Full story:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/...eds-homes.html




Residents in the small Pennsylvania town of Brookville must've wondered
what on earth was going on earlier this month when a sudden power surge
caused electrical appliances and gizmos in up to 1,000 homes to fry,
explode, or simply conk out.

What may have momentarily seemed like some kind of weird supernatural
happening was actually an electrical surge caused by a failed power
line
component, according to an AP report. Local media said that "damage
ranged from residents losing a refrigerator to losing all appliances in
the kitchen or losing everything in the house."

Up to a quarter of the town's 4,000 residents were thought to have been
affected by the incident, with many reporting fried computers, burned
electrical meters, and damaged power strips. Some even spoke of
fluorescent lights suddenly exploding.

When the surge occurred, the high volume of calls flooding into the
emergency services forced the local fire department to call for extra
help from three nearby facilities.

As for the local cops, the incident tripped its main office radio,
causing them to miss the first emergency calls. The first they knew
something was up was when they heard the fire trucks roaring through
the
town.

"We were fortunate that nobody was hurt," Tracy Zents, the director of
Jefferson County's Department of Emergency Services, told AP.

You should have anything expensive in a UPS.


Big help if the house burns down.

I've heard of folks getting MOVs put in right at the meter, outside the
house. In that sort of super nasty surge, they explode and isolate the
house from the line. Never had the urge to do it myself, but it might
be good insurance.

Wouldn't a really big surge destroy the first thing it hits, i.e. the
main fuse, meter, etc?


It matters where the big arc happens, though. You don't clear a high
energy 1600-4800V circuit with a domestic 240V breaker, that's for sure.
The result is an _arc flash_, which you do _not_ want in your
vicinity, trust me. (Youtube has a lot of examples if you doubt this.)

Having a major league arc flash on a cinderblock foundation outside the
house is a very different proposition from having one in a breaker box
mounted to a wooden stud wall inside, for one thing, but I'm outside my
experience here, so I'll happily defer to any actual power engineering
types who want to chime in.

I can't believe it's that likely for 4800V to get onto a 240V line. Possible, but so rare it's not worth bothering to install protection. I protect against little spikes, or voltages about 30V under/over what they should be. My UPS frequently adjusts the voltage, and sometimes gives up and runs the house on batteries for 5 seconds.

--
If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.

On 02/08/2017 05:18 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 22:13:00 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 05:00 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 21:55:06 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 02:46 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:31:50 -0000, Mr. Man-wai Chang
wrote:

A small town's sudden power surge fried tech gear in hundreds of
homes

Full story:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/...eds-homes.html





Residents in the small Pennsylvania town of Brookville must've
wondered
what on earth was going on earlier this month when a sudden power
surge
caused electrical appliances and gizmos in up to 1,000 homes to fry,
explode, or simply conk out.

What may have momentarily seemed like some kind of weird supernatural
happening was actually an electrical surge caused by a failed power
line
component, according to an AP report. Local media said that "damage
ranged from residents losing a refrigerator to losing all
appliances in
the kitchen or losing everything in the house."

Up to a quarter of the town's 4,000 residents were thought to have
been
affected by the incident, with many reporting fried computers, burned
electrical meters, and damaged power strips. Some even spoke of
fluorescent lights suddenly exploding.

When the surge occurred, the high volume of calls flooding into the
emergency services forced the local fire department to call for extra
help from three nearby facilities.

As for the local cops, the incident tripped its main office radio,
causing them to miss the first emergency calls. The first they knew
something was up was when they heard the fire trucks roaring through
the
town.

"We were fortunate that nobody was hurt," Tracy Zents, the
director of
Jefferson County's Department of Emergency Services, told AP.

You should have anything expensive in a UPS.


Big help if the house burns down.

I've heard of folks getting MOVs put in right at the meter, outside the
house. In that sort of super nasty surge, they explode and isolate the
house from the line. Never had the urge to do it myself, but it might
be good insurance.

Wouldn't a really big surge destroy the first thing it hits, i.e. the
main fuse, meter, etc?


It matters where the big arc happens, though. You don't clear a high
energy 1600-4800V circuit with a domestic 240V breaker, that's for sure.
The result is an _arc flash_, which you do _not_ want in your
vicinity, trust me. (Youtube has a lot of examples if you doubt this.)

Having a major league arc flash on a cinderblock foundation outside the
house is a very different proposition from having one in a breaker box
mounted to a wooden stud wall inside, for one thing, but I'm outside my
experience here, so I'll happily defer to any actual power engineering
types who want to chime in.

I can't believe it's that likely for 4800V to get onto a 240V line.
Possible, but so rare it's not worth bothering to install protection. I
protect against little spikes, or voltages about 30V under/over what
they should be. My UPS frequently adjusts the voltage, and sometimes
gives up and runs the house on batteries for 5 seconds.


Well, I bought my house in 1990, and still haven't done that, so I guess
you can say I agree.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 22:22:27 -0000, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 02/08/2017 05:18 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 22:13:00 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 05:00 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 21:55:06 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 02:46 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:31:50 -0000, Mr. Man-wai Chang
wrote:

A small town's sudden power surge fried tech gear in hundreds of
homes

Full story:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/...eds-homes.html





Residents in the small Pennsylvania town of Brookville must've
wondered
what on earth was going on earlier this month when a sudden power
surge
caused electrical appliances and gizmos in up to 1,000 homes to fry,
explode, or simply conk out.

What may have momentarily seemed like some kind of weird supernatural
happening was actually an electrical surge caused by a failed power
line
component, according to an AP report. Local media said that "damage
ranged from residents losing a refrigerator to losing all
appliances in
the kitchen or losing everything in the house."

Up to a quarter of the town's 4,000 residents were thought to have
been
affected by the incident, with many reporting fried computers, burned
electrical meters, and damaged power strips. Some even spoke of
fluorescent lights suddenly exploding.

When the surge occurred, the high volume of calls flooding into the
emergency services forced the local fire department to call for extra
help from three nearby facilities.

As for the local cops, the incident tripped its main office radio,
causing them to miss the first emergency calls. The first they knew
something was up was when they heard the fire trucks roaring through
the
town.

"We were fortunate that nobody was hurt," Tracy Zents, the
director of
Jefferson County's Department of Emergency Services, told AP.

You should have anything expensive in a UPS.


Big help if the house burns down.

I've heard of folks getting MOVs put in right at the meter, outside the
house. In that sort of super nasty surge, they explode and isolate the
house from the line. Never had the urge to do it myself, but it might
be good insurance.

Wouldn't a really big surge destroy the first thing it hits, i.e. the
main fuse, meter, etc?


It matters where the big arc happens, though. You don't clear a high
energy 1600-4800V circuit with a domestic 240V breaker, that's for sure.
The result is an _arc flash_, which you do _not_ want in your
vicinity, trust me. (Youtube has a lot of examples if you doubt this.)

Having a major league arc flash on a cinderblock foundation outside the
house is a very different proposition from having one in a breaker box
mounted to a wooden stud wall inside, for one thing, but I'm outside my
experience here, so I'll happily defer to any actual power engineering
types who want to chime in.

I can't believe it's that likely for 4800V to get onto a 240V line.
Possible, but so rare it's not worth bothering to install protection. I
protect against little spikes, or voltages about 30V under/over what
they should be. My UPS frequently adjusts the voltage, and sometimes
gives up and runs the house on batteries for 5 seconds.


Well, I bought my house in 1990, and still haven't done that, so I guess
you can say I agree.

I got my house in 2000. I got a UPS for the computer to keep it from crashing and corrupting the hard disk with 5 second powercuts. But when I got some LED lighting and it kept failing, I paid more attention to the UPS and noticed it was frequently reporting overvoltage. Connecting all the house lighting to the UPS prevented the LEDs from failing so often. The overvoltage takes the 230V up to about 256V, but apparently this is within specs, so the power company refuses to fix it. It started happening when they renewed the street's transformer (substation). They did send an electrician round, but he said there was nothing he could do, although he did comment that the guy responsible for voltage regulation in my area wasn't as fussy as he was. He claimed he liked to set things to precisely 230V, and the new guy just let it go if it was within the 10% legally allowed. I kept a close eye on the voltage, and it never gets below (or even down to) 230V, so clearly it's not
averaging the correct value, and should be adjusted more accurately, but the power company doesn't give a ****.

I'll take two tacos and a side of frys.

On Wed, 8 Feb 2017 17:22:27 -0500, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 05:18 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 22:13:00 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 05:00 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 21:55:06 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 02:46 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:31:50 -0000, Mr. Man-wai Chang
wrote:

A small town's sudden power surge fried tech gear in hundreds of
homes

Full story:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/...eds-homes.html





Residents in the small Pennsylvania town of Brookville must've
wondered
what on earth was going on earlier this month when a sudden power
surge
caused electrical appliances and gizmos in up to 1,000 homes to fry,
explode, or simply conk out.

What may have momentarily seemed like some kind of weird supernatural
happening was actually an electrical surge caused by a failed power
line
component, according to an AP report. Local media said that "damage
ranged from residents losing a refrigerator to losing all
appliances in
the kitchen or losing everything in the house."

Up to a quarter of the town's 4,000 residents were thought to have
been
affected by the incident, with many reporting fried computers, burned
electrical meters, and damaged power strips. Some even spoke of
fluorescent lights suddenly exploding.

When the surge occurred, the high volume of calls flooding into the
emergency services forced the local fire department to call for extra
help from three nearby facilities.

As for the local cops, the incident tripped its main office radio,
causing them to miss the first emergency calls. The first they knew
something was up was when they heard the fire trucks roaring through
the
town.

"We were fortunate that nobody was hurt," Tracy Zents, the
director of
Jefferson County's Department of Emergency Services, told AP.

You should have anything expensive in a UPS.


Big help if the house burns down.

I've heard of folks getting MOVs put in right at the meter, outside the
house. In that sort of super nasty surge, they explode and isolate the
house from the line. Never had the urge to do it myself, but it might
be good insurance.

Wouldn't a really big surge destroy the first thing it hits, i.e. the
main fuse, meter, etc?


It matters where the big arc happens, though. You don't clear a high
energy 1600-4800V circuit with a domestic 240V breaker, that's for sure.
The result is an _arc flash_, which you do _not_ want in your
vicinity, trust me. (Youtube has a lot of examples if you doubt this.)

Having a major league arc flash on a cinderblock foundation outside the
house is a very different proposition from having one in a breaker box
mounted to a wooden stud wall inside, for one thing, but I'm outside my
experience here, so I'll happily defer to any actual power engineering
types who want to chime in.

I can't believe it's that likely for 4800V to get onto a 240V line.
Possible, but so rare it's not worth bothering to install protection. I
protect against little spikes, or voltages about 30V under/over what
they should be. My UPS frequently adjusts the voltage, and sometimes
gives up and runs the house on batteries for 5 seconds.


Well, I bought my house in 1990, and still haven't done that, so I guess
you can say I agree.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs
A truck hit a padmounted transformer about 100 ft from my dad's
house, shorting the primary to the secondaty momentarily before
tripping the fuse. It blew the fuse in his then- new TV and blew one
or two bulbe - but destroyed half the appliances in the house next
door. I fixed the TV - Dad replaced the bulbs, and Waterloo North
Hydro's and the truck driver's insurance replaced the neighbours
appliances. The transformer made a BIG BANG when the circuit protector
blew.

On Thu, 09 Feb 2017 00:17:25 -0000, wrote:

On Wed, 8 Feb 2017 17:22:27 -0500, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 05:18 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 22:13:00 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 05:00 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 21:55:06 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 02:46 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:31:50 -0000, Mr. Man-wai Chang
wrote:

A small town's sudden power surge fried tech gear in hundreds of
homes

Full story:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/...eds-homes.html





Residents in the small Pennsylvania town of Brookville must've
wondered
what on earth was going on earlier this month when a sudden power
surge
caused electrical appliances and gizmos in up to 1,000 homes to fry,
explode, or simply conk out.

What may have momentarily seemed like some kind of weird supernatural
happening was actually an electrical surge caused by a failed power
line
component, according to an AP report. Local media said that "damage
ranged from residents losing a refrigerator to losing all
appliances in
the kitchen or losing everything in the house."

Up to a quarter of the town's 4,000 residents were thought to have
been
affected by the incident, with many reporting fried computers, burned
electrical meters, and damaged power strips. Some even spoke of
fluorescent lights suddenly exploding.

When the surge occurred, the high volume of calls flooding into the
emergency services forced the local fire department to call for extra
help from three nearby facilities.

As for the local cops, the incident tripped its main office radio,
causing them to miss the first emergency calls. The first they knew
something was up was when they heard the fire trucks roaring through
the
town.

"We were fortunate that nobody was hurt," Tracy Zents, the
director of
Jefferson County's Department of Emergency Services, told AP.

You should have anything expensive in a UPS.


Big help if the house burns down.

I've heard of folks getting MOVs put in right at the meter, outside the
house. In that sort of super nasty surge, they explode and isolate the
house from the line. Never had the urge to do it myself, but it might
be good insurance.

Wouldn't a really big surge destroy the first thing it hits, i.e. the
main fuse, meter, etc?


It matters where the big arc happens, though. You don't clear a high
energy 1600-4800V circuit with a domestic 240V breaker, that's for sure.
The result is an _arc flash_, which you do _not_ want in your
vicinity, trust me. (Youtube has a lot of examples if you doubt this.)

Having a major league arc flash on a cinderblock foundation outside the
house is a very different proposition from having one in a breaker box
mounted to a wooden stud wall inside, for one thing, but I'm outside my
experience here, so I'll happily defer to any actual power engineering
types who want to chime in.

I can't believe it's that likely for 4800V to get onto a 240V line.
Possible, but so rare it's not worth bothering to install protection. I
protect against little spikes, or voltages about 30V under/over what
they should be. My UPS frequently adjusts the voltage, and sometimes
gives up and runs the house on batteries for 5 seconds.


Well, I bought my house in 1990, and still haven't done that, so I guess
you can say I agree.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs
A truck hit a padmounted transformer about 100 ft from my dad's
house, shorting the primary to the secondaty momentarily before
tripping the fuse. It blew the fuse in his then- new TV and blew one
or two bulbe - but destroyed half the appliances in the house next
door. I fixed the TV - Dad replaced the bulbs, and Waterloo North
Hydro's and the truck driver's insurance replaced the neighbours
appliances. The transformer made a BIG BANG when the circuit protector
blew.

Pity it didn't electrocute the truck driver.

--
During the weekly Lamaze class, the instructor emphasized the importance of exercise, hinting strongly that husbands need to get out and start walking with their wives.
From the back of the room one expectant father inquired, "Would it be okay if she carries a bag of golf clubs while she walks?"

On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 19:17:25 -0500, wrote in part:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/...eds-homes.html
Residents in the small Pennsylvania town of Brookville must've
wondered
what on earth was going on earlier this month when a sudden power
surge
caused electrical appliances and gizmos in up to 1,000 homes to fry,
explode, or simply conk out.
At least 5 different times in 15 years my house has had 1 or 2 devices
die immediately when there was lighting around or someone ran into a
power pole. At least 4 times 1 or more devices failed within a couple
of weeks.

I'd say all appliances should be replaced by the power company if any
in the house failed, or at least anything that fails in the next 5
years should be replaced when it fails.

Also: A UPS is more likely to get fried itself in the cases like
in the above report. House MOV seems like the only hope to
protect from these events.

On Thu, 09 Feb 2017 14:23:17 -0000, Mark F wrote:

On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 19:17:25 -0500, wrote in part:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/...eds-homes.html
Residents in the small Pennsylvania town of Brookville must've
wondered
what on earth was going on earlier this month when a sudden power
surge
caused electrical appliances and gizmos in up to 1,000 homes to fry,
explode, or simply conk out.
At least 5 different times in 15 years my house has had 1 or 2 devices
die immediately when there was lighting around or someone ran into a
power pole. At least 4 times 1 or more devices failed within a couple
of weeks.

I'd say all appliances should be replaced by the power company if any
in the house failed, or at least anything that fails in the next 5
years should be replaced when it fails.

Also: A UPS is more likely to get fried itself in the cases like
in the above report. House MOV seems like the only hope to
protect from these events.

I just don't have the severe things like above. I'm just catering for loss of power for a few seconds, and for the voltage being out a bit.

--
Went to the pub with my girlfriend last night.
Locals were shouting "paedophile!" and other names at me, just because my girlfriend is 21 and I'm 50.
It completely spoilt our 10th anniversary.

On Thu, 09 Feb 2017 09:23:17 -0500, Mark F
wrote:

On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 19:17:25 -0500, wrote in part:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/...eds-homes.html
Residents in the small Pennsylvania town of Brookville must've
wondered
what on earth was going on earlier this month when a sudden power
surge
caused electrical appliances and gizmos in up to 1,000 homes to fry,
explode, or simply conk out.
At least 5 different times in 15 years my house has had 1 or 2 devices
die immediately when there was lighting around or someone ran into a
power pole. At least 4 times 1 or more devices failed within a couple
of weeks.

I'd say all appliances should be replaced by the power company if any
in the house failed, or at least anything that fails in the next 5
years should be replaced when it fails.

Also: A UPS is more likely to get fried itself in the cases like
in the above report. House MOV seems like the only hope to
protect from these events.
I installed a whole house surge protector in my new panel last year.
I figured it was cheap insurance.

"James Wilkinson Sword" writes:

On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 22:13:00 -0000, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 02/08/2017 05:00 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 21:55:06 -0000, Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 02/08/2017 02:46 PM, James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
On Wed, 01 Feb 2017 17:31:50 -0000, Mr. Man-wai Chang
wrote:

A small town's sudden power surge fried tech gear in hundreds of homes


You should have anything expensive in a UPS.


Big help if the house burns down.

I've heard of folks getting MOVs put in right at the meter, outside the
house. In that sort of super nasty surge, they explode and isolate the
house from the line. Never had the urge to do it myself, but it might
be good insurance.

Wouldn't a really big surge destroy the first thing it hits, i.e. the
main fuse, meter, etc?


It matters where the big arc happens, though. You don't clear a high
energy 1600-4800V circuit with a domestic 240V breaker, that's for sure.
The result is an _arc flash_, which you do _not_ want in your
vicinity, trust me. (Youtube has a lot of examples if you doubt this.)

Having a major league arc flash on a cinderblock foundation outside the
house is a very different proposition from having one in a breaker box
mounted to a wooden stud wall inside, for one thing, but I'm outside my
experience here, so I'll happily defer to any actual power engineering
types who want to chime in.

I can't believe it's that likely for 4800V to get onto a 240V line. Possible, but so rare it's not worth bothering to install protection. I protect against little spikes, or voltages about 30V under/over what they should be. My UPS frequently adjusts the voltage, and sometimes gives up and runs the house on batteries for 5 seconds.

Well, it did happen to us. The pole with the transformer broke between the
transformer and the crossarm at the top, partly because it was an old pole
with ants living in the part that broke and partly because of the winter
storm. I saw the aftermath and even still have the two 4800V cutouts
that fed the transformer. This was a bunch of summer cottages on a lake.
Two of them burned to the ground. Our place was on the same transformer
but because my father always threw the main breaker when closing up the
place it was unaffected.