Load-Shedding And Power Surges: Everything You Need To Know About Protecting Your Equipment

Load-shedding and power surges have become an unfortunately common occurrence. These events can have a devastating impact on your electronic equipment, ranging from smartphones to computers to home appliances. 

In this blog post, we’ll explain what load-shedding and power surges are, the damage they can cause, and how you can protect your equipment from these events.

WHAT IS LOAD-SHEDDING?

Load-shedding is a deliberate shutdown of power supply to certain areas to reduce the load on the power grid during times when the demand for electricity exceeds the supply. 

Load-shedding is necessary to prevent the collapse of the entire power grid, which could lead to a nationwide blackout.

WHAT IS A POWER SURGE?

A power surge is a sudden increase in voltage that exceeds the normal level of electrical energy flowing through your home or office’s electrical system. 

Power surges can be caused by lightning strikes, tripped circuit breakers, and power outages, among other factors.

THE DAMAGE LOAD-SHEDDING AND POWER SURGES CAN CAUSE

Load-shedding and power surges can cause serious damage to your electronic equipment, including:

1. Data loss: A power surge can corrupt the data on your hard drive, leading to data loss. If you don’t have a backup, you may lose important files forever.

    

2. Reduced lifespan: Frequent power surges can shorten the lifespan of your electronic equipment, including your computer, TV, and home appliances.

    

3. Damage to electronic components: Power surges can damage the electronic components in your equipment, rendering it useless.

    

4. Fire hazard: In extreme cases, power surges can cause a fire in your home or office, which can be dangerous and costly.
   
   
5. UPS Batteries: due to consent power cuts on load shedding, the batteries lose their life cycle, on average, there are 150-200 cycles, they also lose their memory with every power cut and load shedding this drastically add to these cycles and deplete the life of the batteries and the UPS does not last as long as it should of.
   
   
6. Due to the load shedding and the UPS batteries not lasting, there are situations where the server will not last and the backups will fail when the server dies due to the no power. This can put your company at risk due to either the server has crashed or the backups are corrupted. 

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR EQUIPMENT FROM LOAD-SHEDDING AND POWER SURGES

To protect your equipment from load-shedding and power surges, you can take the following steps:

1. Use surge protectors: A surge protector is a device that protects your equipment from power surges. It works by diverting the excess voltage to the ground, preventing it from damaging your equipment. Make sure you use a surge protector that is designed for the specific equipment you want to protect.

    

2. Unplug your equipment: During load-shedding or power outages, unplug your equipment from the wall socket to prevent damage from power surges.

    

3. Backup your data: Regularly back up your data to an external hard drive or cloud storage. This will protect your data from loss due to power surges or other disasters.

    

4. Use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS): A UPS is a device that provides backup power to your equipment during a power outage. It can also protect your equipment from power surges.

HOW CAN BAHATIGROUP HELP?

Load-shedding and power surges are a reality that we must deal with. However, we can take steps to protect our electronic equipment from damage. By using surge protectors, unplugging our equipment during power outages, backing up our data, and using a UPS, we can reduce the risk of damage to our equipment and prevent the loss of important data.

We hope this blog post has been informative and helpful in understanding how to protect your electronic equipment from load-shedding and power surges. At BahatiGroup, we specialize in providing IT services that include surge protection and repairing equipment damaged by load-shedding and power surges. 

Contact us today and let us help you keep your equipment safe and secure.