Unplugging could save appliances
- Source: Global Times
- [14:11 August 19 2010]
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Though shop owners sell the products for as little as a few yuan to as much as thousands of yuan per item, purchasing the sockets is not necessarily the best options for residents, said Huang.
"The easiest and safest way to protect household appliances from lightning is to simply pull their plugs out from the sockets," he added. "Simply shutting off the power is not good enough."
According to the Shanghai Lightning Protection Products Monitoring Center, residents should check the packages of lightning-proof sockets sold in the city prior to purchases. The director of the center surnamed Zhu, who preferred not to disclose her full name, said that the items require a stamp of approval from quality standard-testing before hitting store shelves.
"There are lots of fake lightning-proof sockets out there," she told the Global Times Wednesday. "These won't help, and residents should be extra wary of buying these items online, where more of the products offered by vendors have not been properly checked."
She said that reliable lightning-proof sockets generally cost hundreds of yuan per item, adding that residents should not be tempted to buy cheaper, fake ones as such products are more prone to falling victim to electrical problems.
Meanwhile, Wang Changxing, press officer for the Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company, told the Global Times Wednesday that while these kinds of incidents are generally fewer than far between, the reality is that it is next to impossible to prevent lightning from striking electrical circuits in the city.
