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| Thread ID: 118934 | 2011-06-27 08:42:00 | Power Surge Protector | bk T (215) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1212618 | 2011-06-30 12:42:00 | What do you think we should do with expensive stereo gear and TVs? Is there any point in having a surge protector for them? Personally I have never bothered for stereo gear. It is nowhere near as sensitive to power issues because it does not use switchmode power supplies (too noisy). TVs are a little more delicate though, and I'd have a protector on that, but it won't do anything for your brownouts. Under those conditions the TV power supply tries to maintain the normal voltage and current out, but if its overcurrent protection isn't too flash it can die on you. Quality brands should be OK, cheapies rather less so. In a number of our earthquakes, we have had the power go out completely and stay out for some time; on other occasions the lights have dimmed quite significantly and then come back to full brightness. Is it important to be protected against those events? All you can do for those outages is switch off the appliance and wait till the power is back to normal, short of running a UPS on them there is nothing you can do to protect against brown-outs like that. A 'surge' protector might be helpful if there were switching spikes, but if a failed power line goes down and arcs before the system shuts it off, it is likely to create a fairly powerful burst of noise that could do harm, and in that instance a surge protector of any desciption is better than nothing. Do you have any idea about what is likely to have happened to the surge protector junction box - it still works, but can it stand more hits do you think? At a guess I'd say it is probably OK, Christchurch has had major shuts not transient events, but if you have seen flickering or over-bright lights it could be suspect, they don't have a lot of capacity to absorb damage. It is crystal ball stuff really, and I wish I had one so that I could advise you better. Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 1212619 | 2011-07-01 00:40:00 | Good info Billy/WT. Billy, your description of the surge protector you use sure puts the cheapies into perspective! I use an APC 1000 on my main PC. I was lucky as I was asked to see if I wanted anything being chucked out by a company. There wasn't much of use EXCEPT for the UPS. It was probably being turfed as the batteries were knackered! I put in two $10 gel cells bought from a fire alarm co. and it is going great. I don't have it connected for auto shutdown. Guess I could get the serial link going but have no idea about Win 7 compatible software - that might be the killer. As for covering everything in the house, it might be better to look at insurance for that? Maybe covered already?? |
linw (53) | ||
| 1212620 | 2011-07-01 00:49:00 | Thank you for your helpful reply Billy. | John H (8) | ||
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