POWER SURGES

[Phil Cooper]

You will have read of the area in Linden whose electrical equipment and house wiring was destroyed by the Council.

The main DB in the area was damaged, so they connected up a temporary generator to power the suburb.

Trouble was, they turned it on producing 380v instead of 220v - household goods, and even house wiring and DB Boards were destroyed.

They say householders must claim against the Council - apparently it takes 4 - 6 months to get paid out (being optimistic).

In the meantim, at their own cost, they must have houses rewired, and all contents - TVs, fridges, microwaves etc. replaced. Out of their own cost...

There has been so many complaints and reports in the Press that Insurance does not cover surge.

WRONG.

It can be covered.

Some Insurers - most of my domestic covers are with them, cover it as standard.

Other wise, you can (generally) ask for Accidental Damage extension - and most Insurers will provide that. It will brink in the Surge cover.

But, it is the old story. People buy cheap - then just discover AFTER the loss where the cover flaws are....

[Dave A]

They say householders must claim against the Council - apparently it takes 4 - 6 months to get paid out (being optimistic).

That's the real problem right there. It is lunacy that those affected must make a claim and wait.

Under these circumstances, where the Council knows full well it has caused these problems, and will know full well the extent of the grid that was affected, it is my view that the Council should be proactively going from door to door to all the properties on that grid, establishing exactly what damage they caused, and promptly setting about making arrangements to rectify.

It's as simple as going house to house and saying "Hi. I'm Joe Soap from x municipality." (Show appropriate credentials and allow resident to verify how they see fit). "There was an incident on the power supply and we're doing an assessment to establish which properties and what might have been affected by it. Could we please carry out some tests on your installation and electrical appliances? It will greatly assist us identify the problems that might have been caused and speed up the processing of any claims if you were indeed affected."

Result - impressed residents and probably a reduction in the number of "chancer" claims.

Going the "file a claim and we'll sort it out in our own sweet time" route isn't going to achieve either of those benefits.

[ghostwriter]

2 months ago our pipes popped and gushing water filled the roads
then the council opened the walkway destroyed the power line
and then connected them without checking

right now i am paying for someone else because my meter is
connected to another house and that person is paying for me
crap is i have a small family the other house have 2 flats

i phoned them begged them nothing

now i will just stop payment and when they come to cut
the power the other guy will be without power

[Miro Bagrov]

My father discovered that the current in some areas and some cities is actually stronger that it is meant to be. This is the case in Pretoria for example.
For example, if the voltage output is supposed to be 250V, it might instead be 290V or 280V.

This causes obvious accelerated wear and tear to electrical equipment and shorter life spam of appliances.

He wanted to know if one can sure the government backwards for all the cumulative damage done by this, if one can prove that appliances in Pretoria last shorter time than at other areas. A wild idea, but what does everyone else think?

A legal remedy could also be available for damage to appliances caused by surges too.

[AndyD]

Overvoltages of that level are unusual and are rarely long term, it's easily remidied by dropping down the tap on the transformer. Usually it's the other way around where the voltage is set at 230-240v and as the load in the area increases the voltage gradually drops.