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An electrical storm fried my fridge circuit board. That was an $850 fix. Installed a hardwired surge protector, have encountered similar situations and the SP saved us from $$$$ damages.

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It’s scary to think that anything can happen at any time and when you least expect it! We had a storm come through about two or three weeks ago which triggered a brown-out the resulted in I think 40 or 60 V (I can remember exactly) on our power line. Some of my LED lights kinda sorta worked but my refrigerator was not happy. After I realized what was happening, I tripped the circuit breakers on my sensitive appliances to isolate them. This situation continued for longer than I would have liked, maybe an hour or two. I figured our utility company would cut off the power but the brown out continued. I have a “transfer meter” installed in place of the standard electrical meter which normally automatically switches in the auxiliary generator receptacle so I can power my house with a generator. Well, the presence of 40-60 V on the line caused the transfer meter to think there was still utility power available and it would not switch over to the generator input. I would have been stuck but fortunately I had also installed a generator breaker and a mechanical lock-out device which allowed me to switch off the main breaker, actuate the lock-out, and switch on the generator breaker bypassing the transfer meter. I could then power my house with my generator. After a few hours, the utility cut-off the power until they fixed the problem (which took all-day). I wish I had an EMS for my house! You never know what might happen next. Mike, can you tell us about some of the failure modes that result in brown outs like the one we had?

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Very important reminder of the importance of using and EMS.

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