Thanks Sam.

Well, at least one hasn't failed -- just fixed the satellite box -- but
rest are dead. I'll get an engineer in. We bought a new fridge and
freezer in the last couple of weeks but never thought they could be
causing this. I think I need to get it all checked out.

Hadn't noticed the lights but it could well be the case that they dim.
And at least I have something else to be paranoid obsessed about
tonight.... ;o)

Sam Goldwasser wrote:
writes:

Hi,

I have no experience of this sort of thing, so excuse the naivety of my
question... In the course of the last few days, our house has
experienced at least six electrical items failing. This includes a
network router and a set of speakers, both of which stopped working
sometime during Sunday night. Countless other devices have failed since
then, including a Sky+ satellite box, an electric fly catcher, a wall
heater... I know all this could just be bad luck and we're seeing a
pattern where there isn't one, but could there be anything that could
have caused these apparently unrelated faults? We use surge protectors
to protect our computers, yet the speakers and network router failed at
some point in the middle of the night.

Again, apologies if this sounds naive but I'd like to know if I'm just
being paranoid before I call an engineer in to chase these ghosts...
:-)

Just because you might be paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

6 items in a week is probably not chance. There is something going on.

Has anyone determined how they failed? My guess would be high line voltage
or line voltage spikes.

Check the AC line voltage on the circuits where these devices were.

It's possible there is an open Neutral or a bad connection to the Neutral
resulting in excessive AC voltage on some circuits. Do you experience
unusual dimming, or more significantly, brightening of lights when
a load kicks in like a fridge or A/C compressor? The latter would be an
indication of a Neutral problem.

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