Tech. Question

[johntofva]

Ok Guys, here is the deal. I am renovating my living room. And have replaced all the electronics. I am going to run a dedicated circuit from the panel (breaker/fuse) box for the new electronics. My questions are:

1a: I know they make surge protector breakers for the panel box, but are they worth it?

1b: And which one would you use?

2a: On top of that would you also add another surge protector strip in line?

2b: And which one would you use?

Thanks in advance...

[johntofva]

Okay... I did find this:

http://www2.sea.siemens.com/NR/rdonl...8B/0/S3015.pdf

http://www.sea.siemens.com/step/pdfs/surge_3.pdf

What do you think about this company? Has anyone here used these breakers? From what I can tell the breaker cost $250, is it worth it?

[musky]

My advice??? Save your money, surge protectors don't. By the time they react to the surge enough of it has passed to damage your equipment.

[johntofva]

My advice??? Save your money, surge protectors don't. By the time they react to the surge enough of it has passed to damage your equipment.

Even if they are in the panel box?

[luckydog]

Florida Power and Light offers surge protection on their bill for $5.00 a month, with replacement value.

check with your power company.

of course if your phone or cable is also hooked up to an item thay may give you a hassle as to whos at fault

[new in town]

Some good Info


http://www.telos-systems.com/techtalk/surge.pdf


Old fashioned tricks
For years, computer technicians have talked of tying knots (usually three) in the power cords of the computers as lightning protection. They report that in really bad lightning strikes, the power cords with knots were totally destroyed…but the computer was perfectly fine. The only cost incurred was for a new power cord. Not bad lightning protection for $3.99!
Others have used ferrite beads and looped the cords through these.
Some people report the same results doing the same trick with phone lines!

The Pentagon did start this practice years ago.

The power strips to all my machines have this done. No lightning strikes yet though.

[garfield]

Forget about surge protectors, when you are talking lightning. There are only a few professional surge protectors (based on diode) that are quick enough to prevent lightning cutting through into your electronic equipment. I don't recall prices, but I recall a 3 figure amount.

The ONLY way to prevent against lightning is to unplug your equipment.

But if you are talking about short power drops or charges on the local net, I alsways advice a good UPS (uninteruptable power supply) from APC. They level out the power nicely to the expected voltage (220V over here) and on top of that, short power cuts will go by unnoticed.

[musky]

Except for the very cheapest, most power supplies in PC's these days can handle wide swings on the grid without problems. The best protection for home entertainment equipment is home owners insurance

[fast toys]

On all of my computers and audio/video equipment I have a battery backup/UPS.

The battery backups will condition the power as it comes in and will stop lightning. The all of the inbound power first goes threw that battery and inverter before it goes out the the plugged in items.

Most of the time it is not surges that damage stuff, it is irregular power. Either higher or lower than normal voltages.

Just make sure that the wattage rating ofthe UPS is high enough for the equipment that is plugged into it.

[luckydog]

I have a UPS and the battery has long since died

but, whenever there is a power surge it still shuts off my tivo and computer.

nothing else in the house shuts off when this happens. not even the clock on my microwave oven.

[garfield]

The battery backups will condition the power as it comes in and will stop lightning.

Nope, It really will not stop lightning. It may explode though, with all the batteries, coils and condensators

[johntofva]

Thanks guys for all the good advice. I have been reading a lot on this. Basically what I can tell so far, is that you need a three tier system. 1. Proper grounding of all lines coming in. 2. Point of Entry and 3. Point of Use protection. And all the devices should have LEDs confirming they are operational. Evidently, after these things trip a few times they are worthless. Here are two very good forums I found today that talk about this:


http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load...336559899.html

http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=13699

[fast toys]

Nope, It really will not stop lightning. It may explode though, with all the batteries, coils and condensators

I was talking from experiance on the lightning, once at my house and the other at work. Yes the UPSs will be dead. The first thing that takes the hit is the AC to DC transformer and next the circuit that charges the battey. Batterys have all survived the strikes.

On a good UPS it will never get to the battery. I'm talking about the $40 ones, a good one will cost over $100+ for a 500VA model.

The big 2000VA go for will over $1000. If you have a $10000 system on the other side it is cheap insur.