This article has to do with surge protection and the home. Not just computers. Something to think about as the value of everything we buy seems to keep increasing.


Need for Electrical Surge Protection Increases as the Value of Home Electronics and Electrical Equipment Grows

Pittsburgh, PA – The need for protection against electrical surges in the home has never been greater for two primary reasons. First, the value of electrical and electronic devices that add comfort, pleasure, and efficiency to the average home has increased dramatically during the past 10 years. Not only do homes today have more sophisticated televisions, VCRs and appliances, but the list of expensive electronic equipment has grown to include personal computers, security systems and entertainment centers.

A second reason that surge protection is needed is due to the sheer number of potentially destructive electrical spikes and surges that occur in homes every day – hundreds according to the latest estimates. Surges can cause equipment to malfunction and in severe cases cause catastrophic damage or fire.

What is an electrical surge?

A surge is a transient (i.e., momentary, impermanent) increase of current, voltage or power on an electrical system. The increase can be quite large – many times the norm – or quite small – 10 percent over the norm.

The larger, more destructive surges, generally caused by lightning, can reach thousands of volts. Lightning doesn’t have to strike the earth to cause damage. More common cloud to cloud strikes, even a mile away, can produce enormous magnetic fields that induce surges onto power, telephone and cable lines. Unchecked, such surges can quickly destroy wiring, appliances, telephones, and other electronic devices.

Smaller surges may be caused by disturbances on the utility’s transmission lines. Commonly, surges originate within the home from the operation of appliances such as refrigerators/freezers, washing machines, air conditioners, dishwashers, lighting dimmers, and power tools.

Surge protectors: what they are, how they function:

Surge protectors limit surge voltages by discharging surge currents to ground. Proper grounding is the strongest prerequisite for proper surge protection. The key components in almost all surge protectors are metal oxide varisters (MOVs). Under normal conditions, MOVs offer high resistance to currents, preventing normal currents from discharging to ground. Under surge conditions – typically 115 percent or more of normal current – the MOV’s resistance drops within nanoseconds (a nanosecond is one billionth of a second), creating a path with far less resistance than the facility’s wiring for the current to flow to ground.

Two stages of protection necessary to effectively guard against electrical surges:

Surge strips are commonly believed to be sufficient protection for electronic equipment such as televisions and personal computers. Surge strips, however, are not capable of suppressing a powerful surge, such as one caused by lightning, and most do not include any protection for telephone or coaxial cable lines. Although no product can protect a home against a direct lightning strike, the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers recommends whole house surge suppression as the most effective way to protect against damage in the home.

Whole house surge suppression devices protect the home where the electric, telephone, and cable lines enter the home. These devices serve as a first line of defense against surges and are installed directly at the circuit breaker panel or fuse box to protect all incoming lines.

------------------
Seek knowledge and all else will follow


Please post back results - Press Ctl D to bookmark

Information