Electrical cut out, damaged equipment — what happened?
June 5, 2018 11:58 AM Subscribe
The electricity in my apartment cut out today, and killed some (quite expensive) electrical equipment of mine, apparently due to an exposed cable that had gathered water. I am useless at DIY. Please help me understand what exactly happened, and how to avoid this happening again.
Earlier today the electricity suddenly cut out in my apartment, and it damaged some of my equipment: two of my Sonos speakers and a digital heating thermostat now refuse to turn on, and the AC adapter for my router fried (literally).
I called in an electrician, who I trust. He experimented for an hour and managed to bring the electricity back up. He said what happened was an exposed cable on the terrace had gathered water, which had caused the electricity to cut out. Then he left.
But this still leaves me with all my damaged equipment, and worse, the prospect that this could happen again.
Context: I live in a foreign country, and don’t speak the language that well. I also don’t know much about DIY.
Please help me understand what the hell happened, whose fault all this is, and what I need to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I literally don’t even know what to google for. Thanks guys.
Earlier today the electricity suddenly cut out in my apartment, and it damaged some of my equipment: two of my Sonos speakers and a digital heating thermostat now refuse to turn on, and the AC adapter for my router fried (literally).
I called in an electrician, who I trust. He experimented for an hour and managed to bring the electricity back up. He said what happened was an exposed cable on the terrace had gathered water, which had caused the electricity to cut out. Then he left.
But this still leaves me with all my damaged equipment, and worse, the prospect that this could happen again.
Context: I live in a foreign country, and don’t speak the language that well. I also don’t know much about DIY.
Please help me understand what the hell happened, whose fault all this is, and what I need to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I literally don’t even know what to google for. Thanks guys.
Who's at fault is a legal question which is impossible to even guess at without a location. My lease requires renter's insurance for just this type of situation but may not apply to you at all.
posted by Aranquis at 12:10 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Aranquis at 12:10 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
Surge-protecting power strips are definitely your first line of defense for stuff like this.
If you have more money to spare, then an uninterruptible power supplies can provide protection against fluctuating voltage levels in addition to surge protection (and also can keep your stuff running for a few hours during an outage).
posted by tobascodagama at 12:21 PM on June 5, 2018
If you have more money to spare, then an uninterruptible power supplies can provide protection against fluctuating voltage levels in addition to surge protection (and also can keep your stuff running for a few hours during an outage).
posted by tobascodagama at 12:21 PM on June 5, 2018
Not sure what the local norms are in your country, but the router plug can usually be replaced from the random bins of adapters at thrift stores, just find something with the same voltage and the same or larger amperage that shares the same barrel connector as your old one. the polarity is frequently marked on the adapter itself. PM me if you need help.
As far as who's fault it was the crappy but accurate answer is "nobody", hopefully you have renter's insurance. piggybacking on warriorqueen's comment. your best bet is sticking everything of value on good surge supressors. I use these (expensive, but good) surge suppressors on everything that's even connected to somthing of value (that's not already on a UPS). That's in addition to a whole house surge suppressor (which is inadequate by itself).
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:26 PM on June 5, 2018
As far as who's fault it was the crappy but accurate answer is "nobody", hopefully you have renter's insurance. piggybacking on warriorqueen's comment. your best bet is sticking everything of value on good surge supressors. I use these (expensive, but good) surge suppressors on everything that's even connected to somthing of value (that's not already on a UPS). That's in addition to a whole house surge suppressor (which is inadequate by itself).
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:26 PM on June 5, 2018
Yeah, surge protectors are good.
I don't know about the digital thermostat, but you might want to look at the Sonos forums to see if other people have had this problem. I was looking up whether they have fuses, and I found this thread that might be helpful.
But yeah, I'd check any nonfunctional equipment and see if there are fuses or if there's a process for resetting them.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:04 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
I don't know about the digital thermostat, but you might want to look at the Sonos forums to see if other people have had this problem. I was looking up whether they have fuses, and I found this thread that might be helpful.
But yeah, I'd check any nonfunctional equipment and see if there are fuses or if there's a process for resetting them.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:04 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
What the hell happened: you experienced a surge. For some reason, the mains voltage on the circuit(s) supplying your equipment very briefly spiked above the normal level. It's difficult to know exactly how the exposed cable with water that your electrician found would cause a surge like that. I'd expect that sort of thing would either cause a short or a ground fault, which could trip a circuit breaker (or blow a fuse if that's what you have), but I wouldn't think it would cause a surge. Could depend a bit on how your building is wired, which can vary from country to country. One possibility you may want to look up is what's called a "floating neutral." This only applies if you live in an area with two-phase electricity. Briefly, if the neutral line (the "return path" of electricity from your house to the power grid) is not well connected, the current will take the ground (earth) path instead. A consequence of this is that the voltage on the two phases can end up coupled, and a load (or short) on one phase can increase the voltage on the other. If this is happening for you, the wiring in your house may be prone to having this problem again. A floating neutral may occur at the connection between the power grid and your home's wiring; in the U.S., at least, this might mean it's the power company's responsibility to repair it.
Whose fault this all is: legally speaking, of course, this depends on the laws in your area. Exposed wiring capable of collecting water might mean the wiring was improperly installed or maintained, which (assuming you rent) could be your landlord's responsibility. Practically speaking, surges are just one of those thing that sometimes happen.
What to do to prevent it in the future: as others have said, surge protectors are your first line of defense for sensitive electronics. That won't help for things like your thermostat, but it will protect your speakers and router. If you can get some more information from your electrician to diagnose whether there's any underlying problems with the wiring in your place that need to be addressed, that should help too.
posted by biogeo at 9:16 PM on June 6, 2018
Whose fault this all is: legally speaking, of course, this depends on the laws in your area. Exposed wiring capable of collecting water might mean the wiring was improperly installed or maintained, which (assuming you rent) could be your landlord's responsibility. Practically speaking, surges are just one of those thing that sometimes happen.
What to do to prevent it in the future: as others have said, surge protectors are your first line of defense for sensitive electronics. That won't help for things like your thermostat, but it will protect your speakers and router. If you can get some more information from your electrician to diagnose whether there's any underlying problems with the wiring in your place that need to be addressed, that should help too.
posted by biogeo at 9:16 PM on June 6, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
* We lost a desktop in a storm (back in the dark ages) before we learned this ourselves.
posted by warriorqueen at 12:03 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]