On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:48:35 -0700, The Sanity Inspector
wrote:

After procrastinating for several years, and quite a few ruined small
appliances, I finally called Georgia Power's engineering department to
come change my household power line. For the second summer in a row,
I've sustained damage from power surges. For instance, I had to have
the motherboard in my furnace replaced again, second year in a row.
(The HVAC guy I hired replaced it both times, and gave me a steep
discount this time, even though it was out of warranty, and the
problem was neither his fault nor mine. I'll send you a
recommendation via email upon request).

So I phoned in to GP and passed along my problems to the engineering
section. They came out and replaced the wire, which was the original
1950s cloth-covered copper wire. They also replaced the neutral wire
anchor on the side of the house, which they said was the culprit. It
had become corroded and loose over the years, and this made the system
prone to surges, they said. They replaced with a different design of
attachment, which they said would not loosen. While they were out, I
asked them to make sure my system was properly grounded. It was, they
said. I asked because I had heard of people who had their wiring
grounded to their plumbing, and when the metal pipes were replaced by
plastic, then the ground would be gone.

So I'm hoping this will be the end of my surge problems. There was no
charge, since this was all on GP's side of wall. If you've been
having similar problems, it's worth a call.


If you had an open neutral, then your problem wasn't surges (although
some might call this situation a permanent surge!).

An open neutral could create a severe voltage imbalance on the two hot
legs of your 240 volt service so that one leg would be much higher
than 120V. and the other would be less than 120V., depending on your
wiring and what appliances you had on at any point in time.

Without being there, it sounds like that this was the condition your
power company rectified... Again, strictly speaking... An engineer
would not claim that these were power surges.

It was fortunate for you that your power company admitted that the
problem was on their side of the service entrance. Open neutrals can
and do occur in customer provided equipment as well.