Hello there,
I received a question from a friend, and found it worthy of interest for the community.
She is living in a 1950's or early 1960's apartment built when electrical norms where different, and where current only served to turn a few bulbs on. The electrical system has been slightly upgraded in the 80's, pulling a 240V line to power an electric stove and baseboard heaters. Only the 240V tri-phase and 240V monophase are grounded, the other circuits are not. Note that absolutely no law force a landlord to retrofit older systems. Such an operation is only performed when required by the landlord's insurer. As a consequence, most apartments from this era in this city are in the same situation, and moving out probably won't provide a relief. Buying a new apartment is out of question for her at the moment.
As far as I remember, her apartment contains a washer, a variety of lights and laptops, a desktop computer, an electric stove and baseboard heaters.
Recently, she reported that she had two hard drives burnt, and a dead LCD screen, a few weeks apart, and asked her dad, electrical engineer, who quickly concluded that the circuit is inadequate in regards to present-day norms.
As there are no ground points and that electrical modifications cannot be made under the tenant's responsibility under law, she resorted to running a very long cord from the stove 120V output, properly grounded, to the sensitive devices. This is unaesthetic of course, but her dad didn't want to take a legal risk re-cabling proper ground to all plugs. Chances are, the cables inside the walls doesn't have a grounding wire anyway.
I suggested a spike-and-brownout protector, but these devices rely on a properly functioning ground outlet as well. Are there any other solution she could have to protect her devices?
I received a question from a friend, and found it worthy of interest for the community.
She is living in a 1950's or early 1960's apartment built when electrical norms where different, and where current only served to turn a few bulbs on. The electrical system has been slightly upgraded in the 80's, pulling a 240V line to power an electric stove and baseboard heaters. Only the 240V tri-phase and 240V monophase are grounded, the other circuits are not. Note that absolutely no law force a landlord to retrofit older systems. Such an operation is only performed when required by the landlord's insurer. As a consequence, most apartments from this era in this city are in the same situation, and moving out probably won't provide a relief. Buying a new apartment is out of question for her at the moment.
As far as I remember, her apartment contains a washer, a variety of lights and laptops, a desktop computer, an electric stove and baseboard heaters.
Recently, she reported that she had two hard drives burnt, and a dead LCD screen, a few weeks apart, and asked her dad, electrical engineer, who quickly concluded that the circuit is inadequate in regards to present-day norms.
As there are no ground points and that electrical modifications cannot be made under the tenant's responsibility under law, she resorted to running a very long cord from the stove 120V output, properly grounded, to the sensitive devices. This is unaesthetic of course, but her dad didn't want to take a legal risk re-cabling proper ground to all plugs. Chances are, the cables inside the walls doesn't have a grounding wire anyway.
I suggested a spike-and-brownout protector, but these devices rely on a properly functioning ground outlet as well. Are there any other solution she could have to protect her devices?
