Electronics > Power/Renewable Energy/EV's

Can an AC motor plugged into same wall outlet damage sensitive electronics ?

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electronic_guy:
Hi,

Is it possible to cause damages to measuring equipment (oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer etc) and computers, if I plug in a device with high powered motor such an air conditioner or home fan to the same wall socket where I have plugged in my instruments and computers.

Here I have a surge protector at the main distribution box of my home but there is no surge protector at this particular wall socket. And I'm not using a UPS for any of my instruments and computer.

Thank you.

Faringdon:
I would have thought only if its an old or poorly maintained, or damaged fan or aircon unit. Decent ones should have built in circuitry to stop them putting out spikes back to the mains.
If you are worried you can always plug in some transient protectors...eg, a board containg MOVs.......or say, a HV capacitor board at the  output of a FWB....these steps will have clamp any transients.

But you can always make a  "transient catcher".....use eg a 450V LR8 linear reg at the output of a FWB....it will blow at the slightest high mains transient.
Maybe just set it up powering a led at 1mA or so......then see , over time, if it blows. Obviously dont put a filter in front of it.

NiHaoMike:
Not much difference between a motor and transformer as far as switching transients go, they're both inductive loads.

james_s:
Unlikely. I'm not even really sure what "sensitive electronics" would be, properly designed equipment should be able to tolerate voltage sags and spikes that occur in a typical household or office environment without any issues.

David Hess:

--- Quote from: electronic_guy on December 05, 2021, 12:47:56 am ---Is it possible to cause damages to measuring equipment (oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer etc) and computers, if I plug in a device with high powered motor such an air conditioner or home fan to the same wall socket where I have plugged in my instruments and computers.
--- End quote ---

It should not result in damage with good power supplies, but I have seen it happen.  In an industrial setting the usual solution is to use a separate dedicated circuit for heavy motor loads, but where that was not possible, an online UPS solved the problem.

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