How to protect our house from fluctuations or power outages

Electrical protection with voltage stabilizer
Power Backup (UPS)

We all have experienced fluctuations or power outages at home at least once – you may have noticed that the TV or lights turn off and on again after a few seconds, or the oven clock is not set properly.
Most often, these fluctuations occur in the evening, when people return home and energy consumption increases, but there are many causes that can lead to these disorders. One of these causes could be the fast development of residential areas, which leads to higher energy demand, compared to the power of the network in that area.

Outages can also occur due to connection and disconnection of large electricity consumers in the area, or electrical discharges during storms. Last but not least, they can occur as a result of disconnections and service reconnections in the area of ​​the electricity distributor. After a power outage, voltage surges may occur and the electrical appliances in the house will suffer.
How do we protect our equipment in the house?

As a result of these variations or outages, the electronic circuits in sensitive equipment will degrade according to the frequency of shocks and the duration of variations, and over time, their lifespan (especially of power supplies) decreases considerably. And in the case of smart homes, where equipment worth thousands of euros is installed, this is a serious problem, requiring smart design and electrical protection.

The solution is to use protective equipment called: autotransformers, stabilizers or voltage regulators, which protect the devices from large variations, respectively an uninterruptible power source – UPS.

The VIKI system includes from the start several types of power supply circuits, so that, in case of variations or voltage shocks, the equipment is protected and the house and its inhabitants remain safe. Thus, we have the VIKI circuit, which includes the most important consumers in the system, such as the home server, communications, motion sensors, perimeter, flood, smoke, CO, video surveillance, access etc., then the VITAL circuit, which powers emergency lights, stabilized circuit (most sensitive equipment: refrigerator, television, multimedia equipment, dimmable lights etc.) and an unstabilized one (large consumers: electric oven, electric hob, air conditioning).

When a power outage occurs, VIKI uses both a voltage stabilizer and a source (UPS) to keep the critical circuit functional – which includes the home surveillance system, emergency lights, access system (close/open doors), the internet, certain sensors, the VIKI computer.
These are the VIKI consumers, the ones that are protected, are connected to the UPS and are not affected by power outages.

Backup of electricity

For modern sustainable homes, those that produce energy, not just consume it, things are even simpler. The energy produced is stored in the battery – we talked about this in the previous article – and is consumed when it is needed. The stored energy will be used at that time of day when the network price is high, or as a back-up, when power outages occur.

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Plants and flowers in the house or on the terrace refresh the atmosphere and improve mood, as well as air quality – but for most of us caring for them is an extra task, for which we do not have the time.

In the houses managed by VIKI, however, everything is easier, even caring for the plants. VIKI manages the watering, giving them the right amount of water, according to a predetermined schedule. And if the homeowner wants to monitor this process, VIKI can send them notifications about how the predefined home irrigation programs have been run. The user can also view a graphic about how the irrigations work, and the control interface can set dates / times for the irrigations to be operational. Continue reading “Irrigation monitoring and management from the VIKI interface” »

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