Not everyone lives in a new or well- wired home; there are times when the electricians have done a real botched job, or the installation may already be quite old and not in good condition, including the plugs. Can a bad electrical installation cause damage? Does it depend on the socket to which you connect the PC? In this article we tell you.
The PC, like all electronic devices, needs electricity to work, and in this case we are connecting the equipment directly to a wall outlet (or to a power strip that, in turn, is plugged into it). If the plug is not in good condition, or what is not in good condition is the electrical installation in general, you should know that irreversible damage can be caused to the PC.
Check the plug to which you connect your PC.
We are no longer talking about power outages, but about facilities in poor condition that include plugs. An old installation, in poor condition for whatever reason, or that has suffered breakdowns and repairs, can cause intrinsic problems that, even if you don’t notice them with the naked eye, could end up damaging the PC. For example, the installation may have frayed cables internally, that an automatic device does not have the necessary amperage for the cable section, that the ground connection has not been installed correctly, or simply that the plug is half broken. All this is synonymous with problems.
Obviously, one of the first things you should check is that the plug to which you are going to connect the PC is physically in good condition… if you see that the plastic is half broken, that the plug is half unhooked and not well fixed in its place or that has charcoal on it somewhere, don’t plug your PC into it (or anything else, really), you should call an electrician (or do it yourself if you’re knowledgeable) and immediately change that plug.
Otherwise, it may cause electrical problems in the PC, such as short circuits, surges or drops in voltage, etc. that generally the power supply, if it is of good quality and has protections, will be able to mitigate so that nothing happens to the PC, but eventually the power supply itself could end up being damaged by this “constant suffering” due to a bad installation electrical.
What to do if the electrical installation is in poor condition?
This is already more at a general level than just in the socket to which you connect the PC, but the ideal is to review and/or change the entire electrical installation of your house. A review can be done completely free by your home insurance (call and find out, because not all insurances cover this) if you suspect that it is in poor condition, and they themselves will guide you on the necessary work and the cost that it will have. Ultimately, we can tell you that changing the entire electrical installation of a flat of about 100 square meters costs approximately 2,000 Euros . It is expensive, but with this you guarantee that it will be in good condition.
In any case, a more immediate and not so expensive solution is to get a power strip to plug in the PC; These power strips have a protection system against short circuits and power surges, protecting your PC and its power supply, and also in the case of “fat” electrical problems, they usually have a safety fuse that is what breaks when happens (and this fuse usually costs about 2 Euros in hardware stores, so it’s easy and cheap to change).
Don’t know which protection strip to buy? Don’t worry, we recommend one below: the APC Surge Arrest PL8VT3. This power strip can be quite expensive compared to the normal ones, but we guarantee that it is the best option you can have (literally, a server uses it for the PC for 15 years). In addition, it is compatible with PLC (unlike normal power strips).
If your electrical installation is old or in poor condition, don’t hesitate, this protection strip is life insurance for your PC.
