Risks of Improperly Shutting Down Electronics During a Power Outage

Critters are a common culprit behind power outages. Raccoons, squirrels, and rats can climb on power lines and short-circuit systems or crawl into electrical enclosures. Even birds near multiple power lines can pose a risk. While pest animals may not cause outages across an entire town, they can cause outages at individual homes or buildings. These outages can be incredibly disruptive—not only is the electricity out until the issue is repaired, but sudden and improper shutdowns can damage your electronics. Take a closer look at some of these common risks so you can prepare your devices as much as possible.

Data Loss

Active electronics will lose data if they're interrupted by a power outage. Anything logged only in the volatile memory systems, like RAM, will be entirely lost because it hasn't been properly saved. There is also a significant risk of partially saved files becoming corrupted and unrecoverable.

Hardware Damage

Power surges are sudden increases in voltage. This can hit your devices when the power comes back on, frying sensitive circuits and causing irreparable physical damage. You can mitigate the risk with a surge protector or unplugging your electronics during a power outage.

Operating System Damage

Sudden surges can also corrupt data on your electronics' hard drives. This will corrupt the files managing the operating system. Either your electronics may develop malfunctions, or you'll have to restore the device to an earlier point.

PSU Wear and Tear

Along with your day-to-day electronic devices, power supply units (PSUs) can be hurt by outages and surges when the power is restored. Unstable electronics, inconsistent power systems, and overloaded components will shorten the lifespan of each PSU and worsen its performance over time.

Stop Electronics Damage Before It Hits

At Critter Guard, we help homeowners and building owners protect their buildings from outages and power interruptions caused by rodents, birds, and other pests. Reach out today to see how you can keep critters away from your power lines and electrical panels.