How power fluctations cost St. Lawrence Catholic Church $8,000 in unexpected damage.

It started with regular line maintenance. It ended up with nearly $8,000 in unexpected damage.

It didn’t take a dramatic thunderstorm to cause serious damage at St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Alexandria. In fact, all it took was Dominion Power doing regular line maintenance nearby. Without electrical surge protection, St. Lawrence had an HVAC system that was vulnerable to a fluctuations in electricity. In particular, a 40-ton condenser that was responsible for cooling their entire church failed after a power outage, leaving the church without air conditioning in the middle of Summer for a week. An entire week of system downtime came from a problem that was preventable.

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This box could save you thousands of dollars in unexpected repairs

9 out of 10 churches don’t have any power surge protection. Do you?

When your church experiences a power outage, it may only last a thousandth of a second. But even a fraction of a second can wreak havoc on your HVAC equipment. The sudden restoration in power can cause electrical spikes which can easily fry part of your system, including the blower motor, control boards, starters, and pumps. Sometimes, you may experience equipment failure immediately after a power outage or a power surge, and other times you may not realize that equipment has been weakened until it fails later on. The point is that, if you want to avoid unexpected downtime, it’s best to make sure you have surge protection in place ahead of time. Unfortunately for St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Alexandria, they weren’t aware that their system had absolutely no surge protection in place. The same is true of many churches in the Washington Metro area.

Do you know if your HVAC equipment features surge protection?

What causes power fluctuations? You might be surprised.

Contrary to what most think, it doesn’t take a storm to cause a power surge powerful enough to cause HVAC damage. Anytime the power in your church fluctuates your equipment is in danger. Here are some of the reasons the power supply in your church might fluctuate.

Wind, tree limbs or other debris affecting nearby power lines,

Other high-power electrical devices such as a commercial refrigerator or elevator that may power up and down during operation,

Maintenance by your utility company,

Nearby construction,

Planned power outages, or simply the power turning on and off,

Old infrastructure,

And of course, lightning.

Significant power fluctuations happen all the time.

The truth is that a power surge can happen at any time of the year for a number of reasons.

Keeping your congregation, clergy, and staff comfortable – and protecting your budget.

When we arrived at St. Lawrence, the HVAC wasn’t running at all. After our team closely inspected the damage, we found the culprit: a simple, momentary power outage did the damage and their system had never had surge protection installed. The kicker? The equipment was only six years old, and potentially had many years before and critical repairs would have been necessary. It was a preventable disaster.

The damage to their existing equipment needed to be repaired, but St. Lawrence decided to prevent a power surge from damaging their equipment ever again. We installed two surge protectors with 10-year warranties, one for the unit serving the church and other for the rectory. Installing both of these cost less than the damage done to the single 40-ton condenser. Now, their entire system, from condensers to air handler, is protected. Additionally, their new surge protectors handle phase loss, which means that their system won’t face damage from parts overworking during a partial system shutdown.

Do you know if your HVAC system has surge protection? What would it mean for your church to be without air conditioning for a week? Let us help out before it becomes an issue. Contact us today at 703.891.4600 to see if you qualify for a no cost site inspection.