When Lightning Strikes: Choosing Fuses over Surge Protectors to Protect Your Appliances

Lightning is dangerous for the appliances in your home. If it strikes near your home, a large amount of electrical energy released has to be channelled somewhere. One of the common places where that electrical energy may be channelled is the electrical wiring in your home. With excess current flowing through your cabling, your appliances can easily be damaged. Thankfully, you can protect the appliances from damage using surge protectors or fuses. Here are some of the things you need to know about both mechanisms of protection and which one works well for your appliances:

Surge Protectors

Sometimes, the amount of electricity supplied to your home fluctuates depending on the way it is generated from the grids. Besides that, these surges can also be caused by lightning forcing excess current to flow into the wiring system and eventually end up in your appliances.

With a surge protector, you can keep your appliance safe. It connects the socket's main power supply line (live wire) to the socket's earth connection. In this way, the surge protector acts as a side road that carries the excess electric energy and prevents it from reaching your appliance. In case of too much current caused by lightening, the side road will divert the additional current to the earth wire, which in turn directs it safely into the ground. The diversion ceases when the current supply returns to normal. 

Fuses

When an electric current passes through a wire, there is some resistance to the flow of the electric energy. This resistance can make the wire hot. Electric fuses operate on this principle. When the current is normal, the fuse does not resist current flowing into your appliance. However, when there is too much current resulting from lightning, the wire in the fuse heats up and melts. This stops electricity from flowing into the appliance and protects it from any damage.

It is important to note that appliances draw a different amount of current from sockets. Therefore, you will have to ascertain the current rating of the fuse used on each appliance before buying them to replace the ones that have already been used.

Way to Go

Surge protectors may not be able to protect the appliances during all power surges. The side road may not be able to divert all the current from the socket's live wire, leaving your appliance vulnerable in some instances. This makes fuses more reliable because they will cut the power supply to your appliance in case of any excess current. For more information on protecting your appliances or appliance repair, contact an appliance professional in your area.