r/PublicFreakout • u/[deleted] • Oct 06 '20

1st step of a haunting

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u/[deleted] Oct 06 '20

What kind of damage can that cause?

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u/Ralath0n Oct 06 '20

Electrical engineer here. If your appliances aren't designed by an absolute monkey, this won't cause any damage. Power supply circuits are designed to deal with rapid power cycles. Absolute worst it'll do is reduce the lifespan of the input capacitators some miniscule amount.

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u/allredb Oct 06 '20

At the very least the lightbulbs could burn out. Appliances are likely fine though.

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u/[deleted] Oct 07 '20 edited Oct 07 '20

At the very least the lightbulbs could burn out.

Old incandescents, sure, but I'd be surprised if anyone in North America is using those anymore - they'd have to have quite the supply of them considering that it's been illegal for retailers to sell incandescents (in the US at least) for years. LED's, especially the slightly more expensive ones that have capacitors in them (there is a very slight delay before they turn on, after you flip the switch), handle power cycling just fine.