Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Anyone got any recommendations for a surge protector for air conditioners?
Our outside condenser unit, the one you cool the whole house with, has fried its compressor from multiple rapid-fire power outages--and believe it or not, this has happened for the second consecutive year. Same cause, even.
We are burning up in almost 90-degree heat, indoors. The unit was insured, but the money won't arrive for three whole weeks, so we're stuck without a compressor or freon until then.
I know surge protectors are great for your indoor electronics, but a condenser unit uses so much power that I imagine it requires something better than the thing you plug your computer stuff into.
What you need is called an Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR). You need one that lets you set a delay before it switches back on.
This is NOT the same as a step up/down converter!
I can't find one on Amazon so you'll have to enquire locally or search elsewhere. Here's an example:
https://bkmiami.com/product/1000va-automatic-voltage-regulator/
You need to choose a model with the correct voltage (110 or 220v) and the correct VA rating. Also make sure that it has a "Delay" button. The delay must be ON to protect your equipment.
TIL Thank you, you glorious frog!
Can't advise on surge protection. If anyone in your family or friends is handy you can probably fix the AC yourself. My husband has rebuilt our AC about three times. He learned everything on YouTube. Every town should have a place to buy the parts even a new motor. Our AC/Heat guy has complimented him on his repairs. If you can't find local Amazon should have the parts. I know Amazon is bad! Given how they have made sure we can't get certain things local sometimes Amazon is the choice. Good luck
if you can buy a surge protector for your whole home then can you not protect an AC unit? turn off the unit in bad storms, they clear out in 15 minutes anyway. and by all means, insure it.
Call an electrician, they will tell you about surge protectors.
If a compressor is a single phase machine, then one phase drops, the thing should shut off, because the transformer drops 1 leg, there's no control voltage to hold in the contactor. But, shouldnt the circuttry protect itself ? lighting is tricky, I lost a modem due to incorrectly grounded cable lines, my fault.
If you are like someone I know, she watched her oven heat up to orange, that's a lot of volts past red, know what I mean?
The electric company or vandals might be responsible for 1000's of volts over voltage. my electric company installed smart meters 13 feet away from my neighbors bedroom, and I reported them to the AG for lying to me about what emmisions come out of the meter every 20 seconds. Put that near the CEOs bedroom.
portable units go in the window. seal the window and ac only important rooms, good luck.
Yeah, we have portable units running right now. Thank goodness for family and friends letting us borrow their spares.
But here's the thing. These outages weren't during storms. They were during completely calm and normal weather.
Someone's trying to burn your house down?