Power cuts

General query in view of our current weather in the UK.
Should we power down and switch off our systems in case there is a sudden power cut?
If power is cut and then returned, say in the night while you are asleep, will this damage your system?

It’s probably a sensible precaution, yes, especially as there is lightning forecast for today as well.

That happened to me years ago, we had a huge storm that took out all kinds stuff we didn’t get power back for 3 days and when it came on around 3.30am scared sht out of everyone.

1 Like

I have the Naim systems all powered down since Saturday night. We had three power cut yesterday and one of them put a spike that took out a load of trips and seems to have killed the old Nakamichi Soundstyle used in the kitchen, which I will investigate once the storm has properly passed, so I’m pleased that I don’t have the Naim systems plugged in.

1 Like

Our cuts are normally unpredictable, so it can’t be avoided. However, the last thunderstorm was so bad, I did unplug, and then we had flash through the whole house with a nearby lightening strike!

1 Like

Bit late now! System sounded sublime on Sunday and so far this morning! We have been lucky in Gloucestershire.

Phil

If any damage happens (big IF) it will be when it goes off, goes without saying a lightning strike can do damage, but if its the weather type such as last weekend its most likely a cable down & its a clean cut off, however overhead cable routes might have a cross phase break & that might cause a voltage spike.
Unsupervised power ups when the whole system powers up at the same time is not a problem for the Naim boxes, however your power circuit CB might well object to the transformer inrush current & it might trip.
I only switch off during lightning storms, but as it happens my UPS sent me two e-mails overnight Sat/Sun that it had gone to battery power, it must have been a momentary drop below its 190v low limit as nothing else went off.

1 Like

An issue to be aware of is that if your home network goes down it may need to be powered back up in a logical sequence. My network doesn’t work properly if it comes back as one job lot.

Anyone noticing dropouts etc on streamers & Muso boxes etc might want to power everything down and then back up again in a logical order if a power cut has knocked it off for a while.

Our system has been powered down since Friday evening. It will be back up tonight or tomorrow. Our mains supply can be flaky in storms. Blown fuses in PSs and spiked HDDs in PCs have visited us in storms past, so we do what we can to minimise the risk. Since we don’t have the system on any kind of UPS or surge protection , it just gets disconnected. Simple and effective.

I was in London due back to Yorkshire yesterday. For obvious reasons I didn’t travel yesterday, so am now just starting home. Sowerby Bridge flooded quite badly, I live on a hillside 100m above the valley floor, so the flooding won’t have reached me, but due to the weather there were power cuts, I wait to see what it is like when. I get back. Home network is OK, I’ve turned the heating up remotely.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.