Who Pays For A Power Surge?

[Cutty630 37]

Just a question about the whole power surge thing. I went on 18 different calls with bedford hills and the majority of the runs had either tv's, vcr's or ac units blown. Now my question is who gets to replace the tv's ect.... I know that the home owner has to replace it but if I had a 60 inch tv and it was blown due to the power company I would be pissed. I would have a power strip with surge protector but if not who would end up paying for my broken equip. Power co??????

[mikeinet 37]

I don't remember where I heard this, but it happened in lower westchester a few years ago... I believe the power company is supposed to pick up a certain amount of the replacements.... if not, i'm more than sure your insurance company would

[Guest BrotherFF]

I just wanted to caution since it seems some of the discussion is gone.......Surge protectors don't protect, its a common misconception.....a $7.99 surge protector wont do the job,nor will an expensive household one,epecially with 900 amps, and the fool comment is like saying "oh well your a fool if your house burned down and you didnt have sprinklers".........happened to me a few years ago and it sucked. Homeowners insurance picked up the tab, and they went after the electric company.

[Stench60 29]

Unfortunately, and I can speak from experience at my work place, the electric company will 99.999999% of the time claim an "act of god" or some other such nonsense to absolve themselves of any type of liability. Calling the power company service center is absolutely useless, I honestly believe they are all,including the supervisors, preprogrammed to say no; it was beyond our control. These are the same dimwits who had no idea what I was speaking about when I began talking about dropped phases and open neutrals, only that it was not their fault.

The really tough part is then having to replace your own equipment and then file a claim with your homeowners insurance. just watch your premiums go up after aclaim.

The worst is for the young guy or gal or a renter, who having just started out, don't have any type of insurance and are left holding the bag.

As to brotherFFs' comment on the surge protectors, he is absolutely right. The surge protector you buy in the hardware store or Cosco isn't going to do much of anything for that size of a surge. The protection that you would need would be cost prohibitive. The best advice that I can give if you are in an area prone to these problems is to unplug what your not using at the time. I know this won't help the fridge or the boiler, but it can save you from having to replace a computer or TV.

[WAS967 97]

Well, the Katonah incident was no act of god. I talked with my father at length about the issue tonight after we talked about his coworkers who were in the manhole accident. (He is a Civil Engineer in the QA/QI Division of Con Edison) NYSEG is very much responsible for the damages becuase it was a voltage overrun and could have been prevented. It was no act of god (lightning striking the lines, flood washing out the substation, etc). Anyone who experienced any kind of loss from that surge should file a claim (with proof of course) with NYSEG. If they deny the claim, you can file a complaint with the PSC and even sue them for the damages PLUS additional for the lack of response.

[Skooter92 7]

Try placing a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) between the wall and your gear-it has saved me a LOT of grief-and the neat thing is if ConEd dumps the grid AGAIN, you can still watch Jeopardy for as long as the battery keeps going .

Just a thought......

[Guest JQP442]

Skooters idea of putting a UPS on high $ items is a great one. Many UPS's will hold back 320 joules without any problems. They are not cheep but they are less then buying a new TV or computer. Also, many UPS makers will give you 'insurance' if the UPS fails, they will cover the replacement up to a definde $ amount.