so i've come home and i'm faced with the following situation the tv is plugged in but it won't work
the games console is plugged in yes and it won't work as well as the ipad it's in and
charging but the device won't boot up joe what could have caused this well it's very possible
that your house has been subjected to what we call a surge event and that has damaged your
delicate electronic pieces of equipment that you've listed there now this is a problem that
has been around for quite some time and it's a problem that's not going to go away anytime
soon so in this video we're going to look at what surge is we're going to look at how you
can protect yourself from it so that when your electrician tells you that you need to have surge
protection devices installed into your property you have a good idea of what they're talking about
if these surge events aren't a new problem joe why is it becoming more of a problem nowadays
well it's because of the rising use of electronic components in everyday items so if you take a
little look around this house guys what sort of loads might you find that could be affected
by search events, we've got things such as smoke detectors we've got a Lithe Audio speaker in the
bathroom and as we work our way down into here we've got things like led lighting and we've
got a boiler controller i can see here which has no screen working on it absolutely and you
might even be thinking about things like washing machines dishwashers tumble dryers and even usb
charging sockets all of these things are at risk from surge events so while surge events aren't new
they've been part of our electrical system for a long long time we're seeing a greater impact
of them because of the types of load that we're connecting up in our properties and do
they need to be on and working in order to be affected by a surge now if they're plugged in
and the socket on the wall is switched on then even though that piece of equipment might not
necessarily be on it's still connected and therefore could be at risk from a certain event
so we've seen the type of items in a domestic dwelling that can be damaged due to surge
but what is surge well surge is best explained by the technical term for it which is
transient over voltage in other words for a very short period of time the voltage coming into your
property goes too high causing that damage that we saw earlier okay we're in a beautiful location it
must be a reason you've dragged me outside joe well we've come out here to have a look at the
source of one of these surges so if you look above us here you can see you've got these power lines
and these are feeding the properties behind us now if there's a thunderstorm and lightning should hit
these power lines or even something close to the power lines without actually touching them
that can be enough to cause that temporary over voltage that we saw earlier and that over voltage
can cause damage the electronic components in the houses behind us absolutely but there
is another source of these surges so let's go and have a look at that now so you brought me
to another beautiful location joe but why are we here we're here looking at another potential
source of surges if you look at the properties behind as you can see on the end we've got lovely
domestic cottages on the end there followed by a commercial building and then over here we've
got a big industrial building now inside here they might have big rotating machinery perhaps lathes
drills mills that kind of thing and those items as they're switching on and off can actually cause
surges into the electrical system supplying that domestic property on the end there so electronic
devices up and down the country aren't failing in domestic dwellings all the time joe so how do
i know i'm at risk of a surge well it depends on a number of things if we work backwards through
the things we've already discussed if you look around your area and if your building is close
to a property that is maybe an industrial manufacturing plant or something like that
it could be that the machines turning on and off inside there can start to have an impact on your
installation in terms of providing those surges that we want to avoid and what about the location
in relationship to the uk am i more likely to have a lightning strike in one area yeah bear in mind
of course when we talk about lightning strikes we don't mean lightning hitting your property we're
talking about lightning hitting the supply that surrounds your property and feeds your property
and so the further south in the country you get generally speaking you're at increased risk from
a lightning strike however we can also say that if you live in a rural area you're also more at
risk from a lightning strike okay and talking of lightning strikes what if i'm near a very
large high-rise building yeah that's a bit of a different one because under those circumstances if
you're in or near a very tall building that has a lightning protection system inside it then chances
are that if lightning strikes that building it's going to cause a surge inside your property
even though you haven't been struck by lightning in your property shall have a look at a surge
protection device next so popped inside it's time to see the device that will protect our sensitive
electronic equipment within our domestic dwelling we've got to show us joe so here we're looking at
the surge protection device also referred to as an spd and where would we get the electrician to
fit it for us the electrician will fit it where it needs to activate to keep your property safe
so they might decide to fit it inside the consumer unit so if we just lift that lid up okay yep
it's just positioned there next to the main switch yes absolutely okay where else could they fit
the electrician may also decide to fit this in a separate unit perhaps near your electricity meter
okay give us a brief overview of how they work they work a little bit like a pressure relief
valve does for a water system so if you've got a pipe filled with water and the pressure inside
there gets too high if a pressure relief valve has been fitted it will activate and the water
will come out of the system safely and this works in a similar way but for electricity so if the
voltage or electrical pressure inside your system gets too high then this automatically
operates you don't need to do anything to make it do that it just does it by itself
and it simply diverts the electricity to a safe place meaning that it can't get to those delicate
electronic components causing damage what's it going to cost me don't think about in terms of
cost think about in terms of value if you look around your property right now and think about the
types of devices that you've got there maybe just your telly i mean if we go online we're struggling
to find a telly cheaper than £100 if a surge the event happens and that television gets destroyed that's
another £100 at least that you've got to shell out this is going to cost you less than
£100 which means that if a surge event does occur this will offer protection meaning
that you've saved yourself the £100 cost of replacing that very very cheap TV
not to mention all of the other devices that you might have connected your washing machine your
dishwasher your tumble dryer dvd player all those other things it reminds me of the story when's the
most common time to fit yourself a burglar alarm yeah most people get an intruder alarm fitted
just after been burgled don't they so what we're thinking about here is showing a little bit of
foresight wouldn't it be great to fit an intruder alarm before the burglar comes along wouldn't it
be great to show some foresight and get a surge protection device fitted before the surge event
happens and destroys your electronic components it sure would so if the viewers are interested
in surge protection fitted joe what's the next steps the best thing you can do is contact your
local electrician and ask them to come around do a survey and have a look to see where the search
protection would be best fitted if you enjoyed this video there may be other videos in this
series that are interesting we've done a video on does my property need a reward i've also done one
where a consumer unit's been changed the latest one which includes surge protection so please
make sure you check out those videos i think we're just left with one phrase to go are we joe
thank you very much for watching for further information please head to
electrium.co.uk