While my family was gone on vacation we apparently had a power surge at my house which caused melted/burnt wires leading to the AC unit and two pool pump motors that are not working. According to the neighbors there was no storm so how would we have gotten a surge this strong to damage this equipment? Only the AC and pool equipment have been affected which are both on the same side of the house a few feet from each other. I will call the electric company tomorrow but I doubt they have any details or can measure this at our house.
This can be caused when a high-voltage line falls onto a lower-voltage one - a power pole knocked down in a car accident, for example. I actually saw this happen (or the immediate aftermath) - a high-voltage line fatigued and fell onto the transformer below it, blowing circuits in our building and knocking out phone service for a week.
In this case you would expect others to notice the surge too, I would think. I haven’t found one other neighbor that was affected by the surge.
What makes you think it was a “surge.”
Maybe the AC failed and took the pool motors with it.
The AC repair guy mentioned it being a surge but whatever it was only affected my house. So it’s possible for the AC unit to fail and affect other equipment near by?
If your neighbors didn’t experience it then the wires to your house may be shorting against each other. I had this happen to my house. It wasn’t continuous so my guess is that high winds caused a crack in the insulation of one of the wires to make contact with another. Could be where the wire went through a tree in the back yard and rubbed a spot bare over time. Don’t know. fit was quite the electrical show when it happened. Took me 20 seconds to get to the main breaker to shut it off. The power company came out and replaced it the next day. Make sure to get the day/time they come out for your insurance company.
One of things that takes a hit is transformers. The door bell, my furnace relay, electronic components with a step down transformer…
If your neighbors have not had any problems then I would doubt a power surge.
But maybe the opposite. A drop in the voltage to your house of from your main. If the voltage were to drop enough and the AC was running at the time then the compressor would draw more amps to run. Depending on the size of the wiring to the AC unit and the current draw that could cause the wires to the AC unit to burn and melt. If the pool pumps were also running at the same time the motors could burn up due to over amps.
If you have a volt meter check the voltages in your house.