I receive this question often from homeowners who have experienced a very costly repair bill for a system that was damaged by either electrical power problems or failing after a nearby lighting strike caused a major failure to a compressor or fan motor; "what can I do to prevent this from happening again"? Many homeowners have had bad experiences in this area. What I have to share with you about this issue comes from many years of experience in the electrical field and industry. I worked in the power conditioning field providing what is known as "Clean Power" for very large computer data centers around Texas and in other states as well. Companies spend literally millions of dollars investing in the very best technology every year to try and prevent power interruptions or damage to very expensive equipment. With the most expensive and state of the art protection systems there are still situations that occur and happen that cause severe damage and power interruptions to facilities. The average homeowner could not afford to buy and install systems like as talked about above for their home. However there is one very basic and simple step that homeowners can take not to just protect their A/C systems from major damage but every other electrical item in the home as well.
When an electrical problem occurs or lightning starts to cause the lights and power in your home to flicker off and on start turning off power to everything quickly if you are at home. It would be wise to become familiar with the electrical panel that serves your home and know which breaker turns off the different appliances and the A/C equipment. You may want to put a schedule together and label the breakers or color code them. During severe lightning storms I have turned the main breaker off in my house to isolate it from the power grid. This simple step and practice can save you thousands of dollars by isolating the expensive electrical appliances, computers, TV sets, stereos and A/C system components. You may want to have a flashlight and candles at close hand in case of storms or outages. It just takes a little foresight and planning to prevent major issues from happening and can save you a lot of headache and money in the future. Lightning is very unpredictable and in come cases when a home experiences a direct hit severe damage cannot be avoided however it is worth the time and energy to try and make the best effort to prevent damage by turning off power until either storms pass or the electrical service is restored and remains steady to your home.
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