Home Electronics cost a lot and it is important to protect your investments with proper care and planning. The fact is most homes will have a number of power surges throughout the day due to switching of internal equipment used by the electric company to feed power to our communities. And most of the time they go unnoticed but if you have a UPS device plugged in you are likely to hear it trip at specific times of the day.
In my area we get a minimum of 2 surges a day one in the morning and one in the evening. They correspond to people waking up in the morning and coming home after work. These are times when the electric grid is under higher demand and to supply the extra electric needed the power company adjusts internal switching to feed electric where it is needed.
Power surges will also happen randomly. You might have a lightning storm pass your community and if a strike is close enough to a power line electricity can be inducted into the power line causing a surge. This can be very dangerous and even Cable TV and Phone lines have been known to pass these surges into homes causing damage to electronics.
You might also have a power surge if there is a power line down. If a line grounds out the nearest transformer and switch should trip to turn off power to that area. You can get surges when the line first goes down if the switch tries to reset. You may have seen this in your house where the lights will go off then come back on then go off a few times before they finally go out.
In all of these cases and many more your electronic devices are hit with out of range electricity that may or may not damage internal parts. Most of the time you get away with just the disappointment that you can’t watch your favorite show that night but when you count up all of the people around the country that lose their electronics to power surges every year the price for replacement is staggering.
Surge Protectors should not be confused with UPS devices although UPS systems do come with internal surge protection. UPS devices use batteries to continue the operation of the tv, computer or other device if the power is not available.
Surge protectors simply sense spikes in the electricity that flows through them and filter out surges and condition the voltage to be safe for your electronics. If the spike is large enough it should trip its internal circuit breaker or melt a fuse wire to cut off the flow of electricity to your electronics. If it is smaller then its internal circuitry and capacitors can condition the voltage into acceptable levels.
Because surge protectors are relatively inexpensive and they also provide a way for you to plug in a number of devices on one power strip they are worth the investment to protect your televisions, stereo equipment, game boxes and computers. Larger appliances like washer / dryers, ranges and refrigerators should be protected by proper use of circuit breakers in your homes circuit breaker box.
Also you should not confuse a standard power strip with a surge protector. Standard power strips provide no additional protection other then the fact that you can unplug or turn off a number of devices all at once. But if your neighborhood power lines are hit by lightning the voltage passed through your home can be so high that if you have the power strip plugged in but turned off electricity could still jump past the switch and fry your electronic devices. In this case the only solution would be to unplug the power strip prior to a power surge that you can not always foresee.
So how do you choose the right surge protector?
Most surge protectors will give you a protection rating in joules and the higher the joule ratting the higher the spike it can protect you against.
You will also see some companies that provide guarantees of protection for your electronics in case their surge protector fails. This is a good thing to look for and if you have a guarantee remember to register your product and keep your upc code and receipt.
You also want to pick a good name when you buy your surge protector. The difference in price between a good brand vs a no name brand is very small so you want to pick a quality product and company that you know will stand behind their guaranty.
You also want to pick a model that fits your needs. There are a variety of standard and specialty surge protectors for almost any application.
You can find power strip models that include Network and phone line protection filtering along with the electrical line protection.
There are models that will match your entertainment center and provide specialty protection for all of your devices.
There are models that replace wall outlets. You should be careful when you install these products and hire an electrician if needed.
There are smaller devices that can be used with laptops when you are out on the road.
There are even remote control models that you can hook up to your kids computers and game boxes and then shut them off with a remote when they won’t go to bed… heheh.
YouRepair suggests that you stick with names like APC, Belkin, Tripp Lite, Monster Cable.
Our store carries a full line of Surge Protectors and UPS devices if you need one of those.