CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — A Cleveland Heights man says he’s out nearly two thousand dollars so far after a voltage drop fried some of his home appliances.
Pete Grebus hasn’t had a hot shower for nearly two weeks.
"I'm glad it's been hot outside at least,” said Grebus.
He says parts are on backorder for an unexpected repair job that likely will not be covered by his homeowner’s insurance.
"We had to get new voltage regulators for our hot water heaters and we have two. We have a radiant floor system which requires that and then we have two furnaces and both of those — the voltage regulators were fried,” said Grebus. Grebus lives off Monticello Boulevard in Cleveland Heights’s Forest Hill neighborhood.
He gets his electricity from First Energy’s Illuminating Company.
"What I thought was a surge turned out to be a brown out,” said Grebus.
Grebus says he lost power for about a half-day on July 7, and then discovered problems throughout his house.
“We realized our HVAC wasn't working, which is our hot water. Our stove requires electric, even though it's a gas stove, to ignite it,” Grebus said.
A FirstEnergy spokesperson says they’re still investigating, but there was a call from the same area on the same day, and a fuse repair was done.
"The transformer in the back in our backyard was making a high-pitched buzzing noise,” Grebus said.
He says he and neighbors called about it, and a lineman came out for an inspection.
Grebus questions why he has to pay out of pocket more than $1,600 so far.
"I find it hard to believe nobody's liable for the equipment maintenance and it's just, 'we're out of luck.' It's not an act of God, it's equipment that needs to be maintained. That's what our tax dollars pay for and the money you pay as well,” Grebus said.
FirstEnergy spokesperson Chris Hoenig says Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) regulations require them to make repairs as quickly and as safely as possible any time there is an equipment failure.
Customers with damage, including from a voltage drop, can open a claim which will be investigated to see if there’s any negligence on their part.
“I'm not hopeful at this point that our claim won't be denied, but it doesn't make sense to me that the Illuminating Company doesn't have insurance to cover this type of thing,” Grebus said.
PUCO regulates utility service providers, including electric, which spokesperson Matt Schilling says must provide a constant voltage level for customers.
“For any myriad of reasons, that could unexpectedly fluctuate up or down. It’s generally not intended to happen,” Schilling said. He says that is why people generally use surge protectors. Grebus says he has a whole house surge suppressor, but it didn’t matter in this case.
“At the PUCO we would encourage any customer that’s had a negative experience with their electric utility to reach out to us,” said Schilling.
If you need to make a claim, call the PUCO customer call center at 800-686-7826 or go to PUCO.ohio.gov
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
