All the appliances need sufficient power to work efficiently. Inadequate power affects their functioning badly. This current and voltage instability has a big impact on the electronic operation. Inadequate power means reduced available power for a period of time. This can be due to various causes like starting a device of large load or some other systemic problems.
Why is good power necessary?
Low power can damage your appliances or can cause operational delays and instability. It also leads to high energy costs. Many of its effects are discussed below:
- Effects on equipment – When an electronic work on the less than recommended power levels, the life of the equipment is shortened remarkably which leads to a need of frequent repairs and high costing due to it.
The motor of a device is most sensitive to the distorted power supply. The motor operates best when it gets the sufficient power. In the absence of which it may malfunction and do not work efficiently. Due to the reduced power, the motor will fail to handle the large loads as the starting torque may not be sufficient for it. Apart from this, the low voltage will put the motor to undue stress which will remarkably affect its life.
Sensitive electronics like computers will be quickly affected due to low voltage. Low power can cause it to overheat and to fail completely.
Transformers and generators will be affected similarly. In less than the ideal power supply, they will be susceptible to overheating and inefficient working.
Inadequate power will cause the frequent tripping of the circuit breaker. As the power supply is not sufficient, the circuit will fail to supply the required power resulting in tripping of the breaker again and again. Though breaker trip will prevent your device from any harm, regular tripping can definitely affect the performance of the devices as they have to face the unplanned shutdowns over and over again.
- Effects on energy bills – Insufficient power supply can cause high energy costs to the customers. Most of the energy supply companies have started to charge on the basis of apparent power rather than the real power which means customers will now be charged on the basis of energy supplied to them rather than energy consumed by them. After poor power supplies, energy supplying companies will oversupply the voltage in order to compensate for the previous inadequate power issue which will result in high energy costs. Other than that your electronics will demand more repairs and the cost of repairing the damaged devices are very high.
- Effects on businesses/economy- Inadequate power supply will cause loss of data and inefficient working of the equipment that is needed for the production. Due to the failure of equipment, the unplanned maintenance will cause high loss of money and time.
- Effects on the environment - With low power supply, there will be a high demand for the power which will result in high electricity generation. More and more fossil fuels will be needed for this electricity generation which will increase the environmental pollution. Nuclear power plants also affect our environment as it includes disturbing of the geology of this earth to extract the uranium. Electricity generation through nuclear power plant also releases small amount of radioactive gases in the atmosphere which is not good for the living beings.
What to do to improve the power quality:
You can improve the power quality by following methods-
- Voltage optimization – During low or high voltage it supplies the ideal level of voltage to the electrical devices so that they can work efficiently.
- UPS/ uninterrupted power supplies- UPS provide continuous power supply at the time of inadequate power. Therefore, it will prevent the devices from malfunctioning.
If you would like to learn more information about inadequate power supply, please contact Electrical Contractors Tempe AZ.