The new year is here and it’s time to tell homeowners to get rid of their surge strip from 2006.
It’s been time to have the conversation about power management for a while, actually. The demand we place on home power networks has evolved significantly over the past decade, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that the growth will continue heading into 2023.
As a society, we’re more dependent on the grid than ever before – both inside the home and out. Think about how often you see high-draw infrastructure like electric vehicle charging stations popping up, or how technology-centric the modern workplace is. All essential services and public spaces –transportation, hospitality, entertainment, healthcare, and enterprise – have become much more energy-reliant than their pioneers could have anticipated.
For some local grids (and the communities who rely on them), rising commercial and residential electrical demand presents serious challenges. Incoming, nonlinear loads and increased draw created by new infrastructure demands can impact power quality by introducing or increasing anomalies – surges, sags, harmonic distortion, DC offset, phase imbalance, voltage abnormalities, and more. When the power coming into the home is plagued with irregularities, the risk of degradation to the home’s circuit and all its connected equipment heightens.
Power dependency inside the home has skyrocketed, too. More people have added permanent office spaces, equipped with ample teleconferencing technology, to meet the demands of modern hybrid work. Meanwhile, others discovered the pleasure of living life comfortably at home during the peak of the pandemic and have since transitioned spaces in their home to suit their entertainment, wellness, and overall lifestyle needs.
Home theaters, gyms, multipurpose media rooms, and more promise to deliver top-of-the-line engagement without requiring a commute. But with unstable power and complexifying distribution, especially during high-draw seasons or within spaces where high-power devices like HVAC and air conditioning are always on, even the newest technology can fall victim to dirty power.
To ensure homeowners’ power environments are suited to support modern technology long-term, the right power management tools are critical. Each home or room might require a different solution depending on space, design, present anomalies, budget, and more.
Integrators should first communicate with the homeowner to understand their priorities and daily electrical dependence. The amount of time they spend at home, the power requirements of their devices, and their observations about the space provide valuable background when it comes to analyzing and choosing the right solutions.
Next, integrators should assess the overall power environment of the client’s home and their energy usage, using diagnostic and analytical tools to identify trends, challenges and common anomalies that might cause problems for updated technologies.
Finally, know your solutions. With several different UPS topologies available – line interactive, online double conversion, and battery backup – as well as a plethora of different power distribution and management tools available for modern demands, there’s never been a better time to expand power management portfolios. And by expand, I mean integrators need to start looking beyond the rack and have discussions with their clients about solutions that protect their full home and every device in it.
Large format UPSs, for example, go beyond the parameters of a networking closet to supply dependable, clean 120/60 power to devices to ensure deep reliability and profitability – ultimately iron cladding integrator’s reputations and safeguarding projects at the root.
The handy surge protection strip from the department store has long been a household staple, but it’s time to prepare homeowners for a power management renaissance. Integrators are uniquely positioned to communicate the role a strong power foundation has in protecting the longevity of modern systems and networks, and in the face of a high-tech 2023, neither the homeowner nor integrator can afford to wait to upgrade their power quality solutions.
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