power surges charging Lifepo4

im renting at a house on a farm that gets power surges because the meterbase and ground wire to the house have not yet been replaced.
i need to know if a lifepo4 battery and charger can take a power surge without frying anything.
if it will fry it, im thinking about gettign solar panels and using the solar panels to store energy in my leftover SLA batteries.
and using the energy stored in those SLA batteries to charge my lifepo4 battery.
what should i do?


(moderator edit: added link to your related thread:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=44939 )

you should repair the bad ground on the service. the meter base has nothing to do with it. if you have a bad ground and 240 service then the 120V phases will not be true 120V AC. you have to repair it immediately. this will kill your TV and other electronics too.

No kidding. I'd be worried about the expensive stuff more than the cheap lifepo4 charger.

Seems to me like the ground wire can be replaced pretty easy, even if just temporary on the surface. Of course, once that is done, you might want to check the plugs you are using for the expensive stuff. Chances are the house has old wiring eh?

yea old wiring like the stuff Thomas Edison was using

Renters insurance that will cover the cost of replacing everything you own inside that house might be a very good idea.

dogman said:

Renters insurance that will cover the cost of replacing everything you own inside that house might be a very good idea.

Click to expand...

i dont have money for renters insurance,
besides, if i lose everything i own in that place im just out a bed, table, and lazyboy chair,
and all my artwork
i dont keep my electric bikes there cause i dont want to charge them there

but you can fix the problem. go to the service panel, open the box and inspect for loose wires. grab the service entrance cables with your hand and tug on them to see if they move in the clamps on the lugs. this includes both phases and the ground. if they are all secure then test the phases by putting a huge load like a lot of heaters and lights on one phase and measure the voltage drop.

if the voltage drops at the service panel by more than .1V then call the electric utility and have them repair the service. they will do it immediately and for free.

on my house the service cable ran through an old chestnut tree which over the 80 years or so had worn through the ground cable coming from the utility side. this ended up causing a major voltage imbalance. stereos and tv died.

the utility came out to test, discovered the bad ground and repaired the cable.

if you just do not have sufficient size wire to carry power to your garage apartment then run a new 240V circuit out to the garage using some 12G romex. you can add two breakers to the panel, run the cable and wire in a series of outlet boxes in your garage to provide power. problem solved. almost no cost. i do that to my outbuildings and my shed where i lived had a 240V30A loop of 12G and it would provide more power than i could ever use.

a friend of a friend found out i lived in a shed so he wanted me to help him rewire his garage where he was living. in the main house where his roomates lived, we opened the service panel, it was newer and had 2 unused 20A breakers. best of all possible situations, so we ran a 12G romex out under the sill, into some 1/2" conduit up the outside wall and across to the eave where i hung it from a bollard with a 25' drop going out to the peak of his garage. went directly inside, down to the wall, and carried a 240V loop all the way around his garage so now he has enuff power to even have a stove or water heater out there. except it is too small. but plenty of power for heat and lights.

it is not that hard.

Well, I can't see it costing you more than just the charger then. I had this mental picture of at least a computer, perhaps a tv and dvd player at risk. Possiby large expensive stuff.

Of course, if you live in an old house with flaky wiring, you are at risk. Please don't tell me you can't afford a smoke detector.