Assess Your Power Quality Needs

While it is best to have a detailed assessment of your risk of problems from power quality disturbances conducted by a trained power quality professional, you can take the first step by completing the self-assessment included below.

1. Does your business have electronic equipment that is especially sensitive to power quality disturbances (power surges, outages, etc.) including computers, cash registers, laserprinters, telephone switches, fax machines, copiers, and medical office equipment?  
2. Is your building or facility more than 10 years old? Older facilities were not designed to handle the electrical demands of today’s business equipment. Because up to 80 percent of power quality disturbances originate inside a facility, these older facilities tend to experience more problems.  
3. Do you have electronic equipment that operates 24 hours a day? Summer lightning storms in the Phoenix area tend to occur most frequently between 6pm-12am. Lightning strikes are responsible for more than 10 percent of outages and other power quality disturbances.  
4. Do you have a modem line or coaxial cable entering your facility? These lines can introduce “back-door” power disturbances into your facility.  
5. Does your business have more than five users on a computer network system? The larger a computer network grows, the more susceptible a system becomes to power disturbances.  
6. Have you experienced any power outages or other disturbances in the past two years? Past experience is a good indicator that you are at risk for future problems.  
7. Does your facility lack adequate protection against power quality disturbances? Adequate protection includes service entrance protection, modem/coaxial and telephone line protection, and point-of-use surge suppressers and uninterruptible power supplies for critical equipment.

If you answered “yes” to three or more of the questions above, your business has a higher risk of experiencing power quality problems.

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