Understanding electrical problems
Eighty percent of electrical problems in your home or office result from wiring or grounding issues. The rest typically occur because of an event in the power distribution system.
Though PGE works to reduce the impact of power surges and spikes on the grid, we cannot eliminate them.
You’re also trying to isolate sensitive electronic equipment from power-hungry appliances, such as:
- Laser printers & copiers
- Washers and dryers
- Electric furnaces and air conditioning
- Electric and microwave ovens
- Electric tools
- Hair dryers and electric shavers
4 steps to protect your home or business
A few preventative steps can go a long way toward protecting your home or business.
- Check your wiring and grounding.
- Are your lights dimming or getting brighter? Is your electronic equipment acting unreliably? You may have problems with your wiring. Make sure the equipment is plugged into a grounded outlet, and have an electrician check your wiring.
- Living in an older home (built before 1960)? See if your wiring meets current standards.
- Check appliances for loose or damaged plugs or poor connections, and repair or replace them as needed.
You install these devices between the appliance and the electrical outlet to prevent surges from reaching your sensitive equipment.
Protect your home or business at the panel with a panel-mounted surge protector.
For office equipment and computer networks that must remain available, consider an uninterruptible power supply.
An uninterruptible power supply device — or UPS — protects computers, modems and other equipment by “cleaning up” and regulating voltage, guarding against surges, spikes, voltage sags and outages that can cause your equipment to fail. It provides temporary emergency backup power from a battery.
A short-term decrease in voltage lasting anywhere from milliseconds up to a few seconds.
A box or panel where circuit breakers or fuses are located.
A protective device for limiting surge voltages on equipment by discharging or bypassing the surge current to ground.
Power Surge or Spike
A sudden, sharp increase in the voltage or current lasting less than one cycle.
Living in an older home (built before 1960)?
Generally, houses built before 1960 do not have a ground conductor included with their electrical outlets. In other words, there are two holes instead of three. Occasionally, people add outlets to their house so they can plug in three-prong cords, but they do not add the ground wire to the receptacle. An electrical contractor can help.