Outdoor AC Compressors and Lizards

    @Cherryann01
Valerie Singleton would be proud of you Cherryann
   

    -@Lotus Eater

Blue Peter badge for me then.

@aklokow

We just have had a Lizard blow the Board on our Inside unit os a Samsung Air con.

We don't know how it got in there, but it did.

The Aircon is almost Ten years old and it has never happened before.

@aklokow

We have just had a Lizard destroy the Board on the inside unit of a Samsung Air-con.

We don't know how it got in there, but it did.

We have had the Air-con almost Twn years and it has never happened before.

Discard

@Enzyte Bob

Power stips take a hit andprotect once or twice... next hit they pass the surge on and fry the equipment.... I learned that the hard way.  I recommend using a battery backup as they have some of the best surge protection plus.... some power stored up for an emergency.

They weigh a lot but they do a much better job protecting your electronics.  I am new to AC, no need for AC in my part of Canada, only good heaters.  so what is the final verdict on protevting AC from power surge.

Donald

    @Enzyte Bob
Power stips take a hit andprotect once or twice... next hit they pass the surge on and fry the equipment.... I learned that the hard way.  I recommend using a battery backup as they have some of the best surge protection plus.... some power stored up for an emergency.

They weigh a lot but they do a much better job protecting your electronics.  I am new to AC, no need for AC in my part of Canada, only good heaters.  so what is the final verdict on protevting AC from power surge.

Donald
   

    -@AlbertaDonuts

What you say about PLD and surge protectors is correct when discussing surges that exceed the energy rating of the internal MOVs. But many times,  the protector may be smoothing out spikes from distant power line disturbances (distant lightning, HV power crosses etc.) and you don't know it. It may have protected your equipment many times until you encounter a nearby powerline event that destroys the surge protector itself. It is not possible to design one that will survive a nearby lightning strike or 13.2 KV power cross but they will usually survive, and protect equipment, when surges from brownouts occur. Such surges may otherwise ruin equipment that uses inverters that have no protection like refrigerators and washing machines. It seems that AC is not so exposed to surge failures and I suspect that may be due to such equipment having their own on-board protection. Anyway, this discussion is more about geckos somehow getting inside the outdoor AC inverter-compressors and shorting out the inverter boards resulting the in a 10000php repair bill. I have never had it happen to me; I have heard of several incidents with Samsung units. Different brands may make it easier or harder for lizards, snakes and rats to get inside and cause damage. Sometimes when buying appliances here, the installer will offer to add screens for extra money. This even applies to electric ranges and washing machines. When they offer that I suggest taking them up on their offer.

@AlbertaDonuts

Don We have surge guards on all electronics here but lightning has its ways and means of blowing things while the surge arrestor is fine. Here we are solar these days and zilch to do with the grid but I'm sure a lightning strike next to the house would find its way through the earthing system and create merry hell.

As for A/C Fantastic for sleeping comfortably at night and the other A/C units are seriously appreciated through the day, especially the hot season. My movements in the wet are 6 to 9am and 5 to 7 pm outside, old age or a simple princess, seems to be working for me.

Cheers, Steve.

@bigpearl "Don We have surge guards on all electronics here but lightning has its ways and means of blowing things while the surge arrestor is fine"

Sometimes a big surge will totally destroy the protective MOVs and open the circuit. In that case you will notice no change, you will just be missing MOV protection and not know it. Sometimes the surge destroys the MOV not as an open circuit but as a resistance and that is very dangerous because the line voltage will heat up the resistor to the point where it causes a fire. Part of my job at IBM and Lenovo was a cause and origin fire invesigator. In the US, due to the many fires, UL required a design change to essentially add fuses in series with the MOVs (UL1488) and I wouldn't be surprised if Australia adopted the same requirement but here, there is no real safety agency so surge suppressors here such as Chinese made with no fuses and probably do not meet UL1488. As such the present serious fire hazards in the residences here. And if there is a fire there is no way to recover. For that reason I would recommend that foreigners (or anybody) purchase only agency approved (Australian,EU, UK, Canada,US) purchased online... Amazon.com would be a good source, Lazada and shopee probably sell Chinese products, at least some without the fuses.

@danfinn

Probably most are made in China and don't have the protection you wisely mentioned. As you seem to be up on surge guards and spikes how do we go here now disconnected from the grid and running off invertors and batteries remembering that the A/C and H/W outlets are grounded through the rebar to ground/foundations but nothing else.

Cheers, Steve.

    @danfinn
Probably most are made in China and don't have the protection you wisely mentioned. As you seem to be up on surge guards and spikes how do we go here now disconnected from the grid and running off invertors and batteries remembering that the A/C and H/W outlets are grounded through the rebar to ground/foundations but nothing else.

Cheers, Steve.
   

    -@bigpearl

If you are not grid-tied at all your power will be clean although i suppose your home could always be hit by lightning. If that happened, for example lightning somehow hit your system and got in through an outdoor light, that could be extremely costly so I suspect your system has some protection at the inverter. As for surge supressors elsewhere in your home, that power is clean and I wouldn't bother with surge protectors. The rebar grounds are highly unreliable so I simply consider homes here to have 2 phases with no reliable earthing. I am a Ham radio op so I do need a good ground in part of the house so I hired an electrician and drove in 2 ground rods to ground my station. For safety I simply use GFCIs (Australians may call them RCDs). I am stickler for electrical safety here because a lot of locals get electrocuted (most powercoops require new customers to undergo 4 hours of electrical safety training). I even use GFCIs for the shower heaters due to the imminent possibility that water will get inside the units and bridge 220v to the person taking a shower. GFCIs or RCFs totally protect against that. It should be in the Philippines electrical code to require this but nobody cares.

.

Thanks Dan, the invertors are grounded with an earth stake 4/5ft in the ground. Yes the power electrical grid here leave a lot to be desired with 2 hot wires and no ground aside from A/C and water heaters simply connected to rebar. Working here we always have to turn of the breaker to that particular circuit (double pole breakers) and not just the light switch. I have a DETA 10 buck tester that even picks up Residual current, if so I check with the multi meter the voltage, 2 or 3 volts I carry on, higher I drop the main breaker. Not had a problem since the solar system was installed, off grid no R/C unlike grid tied, not sure why as I'm just a dumb plumber.

I was HF radio for many many years in Australia and enjoyed meeting and chatting but seems I moved  on, was VIV 47, funny that call sign is stuck in my head to this day.

Cheers, Steve.

There are a number of Ham operators on this forum.

At one time I installed a 160 Meter Inverted Vee on a 165' Rhon tower. The ends were about 100' above ground.

Up came a wind & rain storm and we blew out a MFJ antenna analyzer. We were able to draw a 1/2' arc from the static electricity. We installed a bleeder resistor across the insulator were the coax was connected. I could imagine what type of damage it would have happened in the shack from the rain static if the bleeder was not installed.

Many of my friends back in Canada are Ham... huge antennas attached to the side of their hoise and on on our local tv station antenna.

I never got into it but i am sure glad they are there to provide communication in times of disaster.

Donald

    There are a number of Ham operators on this forum.At one time I installed a 160 Meter Inverted Vee on a 165' Rhon tower. The ends were about 100' above ground.Up came a wind & rain storm and we blew out a MFJ antenna analyzer. We were able to draw a 1/2' arc from the static electricity. We installed a bleeder resistor across the insulator were the coax was connected. I could imagine what type of damage it would have happened in the shack from the rain static if the bleeder was not installed.        -@Enzyte Bob

• That is amazing, 1/2 foot spark, the length of wire on the 160m antenna being so great. This static electricity from wind problem is a big issue for hams with big antennas. Even with a small dual 2m/440 mobile mag mount that I stuck on our metal roof, the uncomfortable static shocks could be felt. I simply grounded the coax of that antenna to true earth ground and that resolved it. However, rather than 6 inches this might have sparked over 1/10mm. In the old days when people had outdoor TV antennas, the US NEC code required that the coax or one twinex conductor be earth be grounded at the entry to the house. The reason for this was not to protect users from static shock but rather to prevent electrical insulation inside the product, that separated primary mains from user accessible metal, from slowly degrading the insulation from the constant high votage static charges which would eventually become a true shock hazard (not static) from mains circuits.

danfinn said. . . . That is amazing, 1/2 foot spark, the length of wire on the 160m antenna being so great.

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What was not amazing was my typo 1/2' should have been 1/2". Even Nikola Tesla would have been proud of 1/2'.

On another tower were stacked yagi's , only the top yagi was susceptible to rain static.