Here are the causes for power surges.
Power surges are more likely to occur than you might have expected. They are capable of causing significant damage to your electronics if you don’t protect them. So what exactly causes these surges to pop up? Here are the causes for power surges.
Lightning
There have been billions of documented lightning strikes all around the world, and some areas are more likely to experience lightning strikes than others. If your building gets exposed to enough lightning strikes, power surges are sure to result from them.
You Have Utility Lines That are Damaged
One of the other commonplace manners in which power surges occur is when utility lines get damaged. Sometimes, these utility lines can be damaged due to natural causes, like tree limbs. In other cases, the cause of utility line damage could be from another source, such as when routine maintenance is being done or if pests like rodents find their way into transformers.
Restoring Power After a Power Outage Has Occurred
Power outages happen from time to time, and after they happen, it takes a little time to restore power back to your facility. When the power is turned on again, a sudden spike in energy occurs because many different buildings are restoring their power at the same time. This drastic spike in energy can sometimes result in power surges as well.
Electronics
It’s not an uncommon occurrence to have power surges happen as a result of the use of electronic devices. The devices that cause power surges are the ones that have either compressors or motors, and these surges happen while turning the devices on and off. Examples of such devices include air conditioners and refrigerators, and even smaller electronics, like certain power tools and hair dryers.
When these devices are turned either on or off, surges of power will either go to those devices directly, or the energy gets dispersed to different electronic devices.
Faulty wiring can also be at fault (pun intended) for causing power surges. Surges are sometimes caused by short circuits and circuit breakers that get tripped. Typically, one tiny internal surge won’t have the strength to ruin a device immediately. However, it might become a different story if enough small surges accumulate over time and cause incremental damage to these devices.
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