Home Computer Electrical Damage
If you've read any of my other articles, you know that I
am always coming up with great ideas, tips and even a couple of stories
that can save homeowners lots of money. Here's another one of those
stories, that involves a friend of mine who asked me if I could fix his
outdoor electrical outlet.
I was over at his house one day, and told him that I could probably fix
the electrical outlet and if we needed any parts, we could run down to
the lumber yard and pick them up and his problem would be solved within
a few hours. This two hour repair was about to cost him the hard drive
on his computer, but neither one of us had any idea what was about to
happen.
We each agreed to give it a shot, I told him to go over to the
electrical panel and turn off the breaker that went to his outdoor shed.
He proceeded to turn off the breaker and yelled out,” It's off, try it.”
I plugged in an electric drill and it was still working, as he was
walking around the corner, towards me, I showed him that the drill was
still on and he hadn't turned off the right electrical breaker.
He went back and turned off a couple of more electrical breakers and the
drill was still running. Now he frantically started to turn off one
electrical breaker at a time, until I yelled out,” It's off, the
electrical power is, off you can stop.”
I repaired the electrical outlet and he went back to turn every
electrical breaker back on that he had turned off. We were proud of
ourselves and he now had electrical power, back to his shed and he was
happy.
Now for the bad news, his computer was running and when he turned the
electricity off and on, it must've done something to his computer hard
drive and it now needed to be replaced.
The moral to the story, isn't that you shouldn't help your friends. It's
that you should, make sure that your computers are safely off, before
you attempt to do any electrical work to your home.
It wouldn't be a bad idea, to have a battery backup, for your computer,
if you use it often, just in case there is an electrical failure or
something happens like the story above.