During a power surge on Friday, the capacitor on my AC unit blew out. It's the third or fourth time that's happened in the past 10 years ... usually due to lightning strike ... Is there such a thing as a whole-house surge protector? If so, anyone know how or where I can get one? If not .. does anyone have a suggestion about how to protect the large appliances (AC, water heater, etc.)? Thank you!! Carol
Yes. Apparently they sell them at Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement. Of course there are companies you can hire to install them ike APC.
Progress Energy offers a protection plan - https://www.progress-energy.com/carolinas/home/products-services/surge-protection/index.page
there is a bigger issue girl. How old is the house? There should be gpf built in. Time to ask an electrician how to prevent this.
House is 10 years old. Guess I'll talk to an electrician and get their advice before I do anything on my own. Thanks!
Those capacitors are cheaply made plastic parts. And while the science behind them is incredible, they are made by the gazillions in China. The quality of construction is good enough to run the a/c, but can't withstand the voltage spikes that we have with lightning strikes, even in the general area, not necessarily hitting your house. My A/C guy has replaced three of them in 7 years. They don't last long, and finally he showed me how to replace them and save a call, with the proviso that if I replace it and the system doesn't start, to call him. And, while we;re talking A/C...change your filters...or, as a minimum, clean them...less strain for the system.
Look into one of these two: Eaton Surge Protector Leviton Surge Protection Contact a qualified electrician to have it installed.
She has a bigger problem with the house not being grounded properly. If she has that fixed it should resolve the rest. Johnston county and a lot of the counties in NC primarily east of Wake have really dirty current. Fayetteville happens to be one of the worst I have seen. A good grounding solution should resolve her issue. Just like a NOC with 300 servers. You need not only good clean power but great grounding solutions too.
It's a true term. It refers to "noise" on the line. That "noise" can include sporadic voltage or current fluxuations in the line.
I recant what I typed. I am a bigger person. But Clif you did use sporadic. You may need to explain what that means.
Our A/C went out the evening of the 19th...and turned out it was the capacitor. We called Biggs based on recommendations from this board and they were wonderful! Excellent customer service and got somebody out here the next morning. Found an initial problem with a wire shorted out and when it went out again that night they were back first thing in the morning and found the capacitor was the real culprit. After reading this, I have to wonder if the capacitor was starting to go because we had huge power surges with a storm 2.5 weeks before. Lost power and then it was surging again when restored until it finally evened out.
