As most of you know we live in Turkey.
We have lots of problems with power cuts and power surges. This causes some problems to peoples electrical goods and sometimes causes fires. Twice we have had to have a new part in our washing machine and now our power cable to our laptop has blown.
So we are going around our apartment and trying to get all our goods plugged into power protector units. We are so lucky we have just recently treated ourselves to a new TV and plugged all the goods into a power protector.
Our friends bought one two days after us and had it five days and it ceased working due to the power problems we have.
They had to fight to get a replacement or repair. In the end they were given a refund thanks to a Turkish friend that visited the shop each day.
I wanted to ask if you get any problems like us or are you OK.

I have just got back online after 5 days due to snow storm blowing the modem ( 7 modems so far). I have power protectors everywhere, but they cannot cope with a surge. I am on my 10th kettle too. the main problem is when the electric goes off, when it comes back there seems to be a powerful immediate surge that smaller appliances cannot cope with. the larger appliances like freezer, fridge, washer, dryer are never affected. so we unplug the smaller appliances. the modem is the most sensitive and the most annoying.

we had a fire with a wall mounted fan heater, shorted and burst into flames in seconds. scary.

Hi there's a good topic here viewtopic.php?f=36&
t=1017 that might be worth reading

scott wrote:

Hi there's a good topic here viewtopic.php?f=36&
t=1017 that might be worth reading

Thanks scott the topic looked useful and answered some questions, however, here in Turkey we seem to get a lot of power cuts and surges, some power cuts are for many hours and announcements are given out in Turkish only and we live in a resort with over 2000 Brits. Does the Bulgarian power system go down a lot or are the cuts not frequent? Is it a wise investment to purchase a generator?
:: :: ::

we dont have power cuts here the electrc has only been off ones in 2 years while they cut the trees near the wires along the road,&
no problems with power surges either,some villages have regular problems with the electric &
water supplys it would be best to ask in the village before buying,

You need to use surge maser plugs,we use them for our computers and 3 tvs and never have a problem

mickhev wrote:

You need to use surge maser plugs,we use them for our computers and 3 tvs and never have a problem

Thanks mickhev - I will certainly be using them, saves buying new electrical appliances

Hi, I was lucky in that I lived in 4 differant houses before moving to my renovated place and due to the experiances in each house I decided that I was going to make some upfront investments in the hope that it would save me money in the long term. Like most here I've now spent money on 4 kettles, 2 toasters, 2 laptop power packs, 1 microwave (scarey incedent) 1 TV and 3 electic heaters, not to mention I think 3 boxes of fuses.

The result is with my renovated house I paid 500lev to have a German surge protected fitted to the main fuse box, it takes standard fuses to easy to get here. I bought a low kw generator 3.4kw, but we think it trips out at 2.4, this was 400lv, it powers nearly everything and will run for 15 hours!!, we just switch off the boiler and don't use the cooker, runs a fridge freezer and a large upright freezer, but both of A+ energy rating.

I had an external generator connector put outside the front door and an internal generator switch (this allows you to turn off from the main grid and turn onto the generator or you will find yourself trying to run the village off your generator)

Result: so far since we've moved (only 3 weeks) 2 power cuts, we used the generator today for 1 and to test run it. = no power surges, nothing was unplugged and nothing burnt out. Due to the generator switch, when the lectricity comes back on your still running off the generator, we waited 10 mins then turned back over to the main grid...... So far everything has gone to plan..

I will say that I no longer have electric kettles, as I just keep 2 hob kettles going now, one on the wood burner and one on the gas hob. I will say that the electricity cuts haven't lasted very long at all, 3 hours tops which means we could have just sat and waited as the house is set up to still be livable without electricity, only the freezers need running.


I hope that is of some help..

Well "
seven"
- many thanks for your very interesting experiences. What has happened to you was just the worry we thought we may envisage on arriving into our new abode. We have power cuts here in Turkey and we have put some surge protectors on the expensive electrical appliances. The German main fuse protector seems a real good idea. Of course this is a far cry from the UK when a power cut was very seldom, if at all.

Hi itcheyfeet,

I was in a small Hamlet in the UK too and we had them all the time, but we just put up with it and got used to candles, crazy, but then I guess part of you knew that nothing too bad was going to happen, not like it got down to -30 with a powercut.... and no help near by like out here....

I lived in Turkey too, but I lived on a boat, so it was generators anyway..

The other thing about the mains surge protector is your not plugging into any sockets, unless you can be totally sure about not just your wiring, but about the quality of sockets you have, you could be causing more problems than your hoping to solve by adding surge protectors to them. (just my opinion there)..

"
seven"
Hi itcheyfeet,

I was in a small Hamlet in the UK too and we had them all the time, but we just put up with it and got used to candles, crazy, but then I guess part of you knew that nothing too bad was going to happen, not like it got down to -30 with a powercut.... and no help near by like out here....

I lived in a rural situation during the 1987 hurricane and our power lines were down for 11 days, if I remember rightly we used a lot of candles to see where we were walking. On reflection we could have done with buying a generator.

itchyfeet wrote:

"
seven"
Hi itcheyfeet,

I was in a small Hamlet in the UK too and we had them all the time, but we just put up with it and got used to candles, crazy, but then I guess part of you knew that nothing too bad was going to happen, not like it got down to -30 with a powercut.... and no help near by like out here....

I lived in a rural situation during the 1987 hurricane and our power lines were down for 11 days, if I remember rightly we used a lot of candles to see where we were walking. On reflection we could have done with buying a generator.

I hear this.
I lived in rural Norfolk and it was normal to have no electric at the slightest puff of wind of flash of lightning!We did 2 weeks of no power in 1987.
Bulgaria seems a breeze,but it probably helps that we don't rely on electric as much as we did in UK.
Only annoying thing is the days when we have to work as we cant use the machinery.Good excuse for a cuppa..on the gas of course!