Have you ever noticed your lights blink during a storm? Or perhaps you’ve noticed a blinking microwave clock when you arrive home. When this happens, you’ve likely experienced a brief disruption to your electric service, which could result from a power surge or blink. While the symptoms of surges and blinks can appear similar, what’s happening behind the scenes can be quite different.
What’s a Power Surge?
Power surges are brief overvoltage spikes or disturbances of a power waveform that can damage, degrade, or destroy electronic equipment within your home or business. Most electronics are designed to handle small variations in voltage; however, power surges can reach amplitudes of tens of thousands of volts — this can be extremely damaging to your electronic equipment.
Surges can be caused by internal sources, like HVAC systems with variable frequency drives, or external sources, like lightning, and damage to power lines and transformers.
PenLight encourages all members to install surge protective devices, such as surge protector power strips, to safeguard their sensitive electronics. If you’re experiencing frequent surges in your home or business and you believe the cause is internal, contact a qualified electrician to inspect your electrical system. 16033
What's a Power Blink?
Power blinks are also brief service interruptions, but they’re typically caused by a fault or short circuit on a power line or a protective device that’s working in reaction to the fault. Faults can have a variety of causes, including squirrels, birds, or other small animals contacting an energized power line, tree branch contact with a power line, or lightning. When it comes to power disruptions caused by critters, squirrels reign supreme. 14010
Any of these events can cause your power to blink, but you may also experience a brief interruption when your protective devices that act like circuit breakers are working. Believe it or not, these brief power blinks caused by protective devices are actually good because that means the equipment is working as it should to prevent a prolonged outage.
Regardless of the cause, PenLight crews will be on their way to inspect the damage and make necessary repairs after a power outage. And you can help, too! Any time you experience repeated disruptions to your electric service, please let us know by calling (877) 853-1388 or visiting the Outages page.