How To Select The Right Surge Protector?

It's important to understand how power surge protectors work in order to select a good one that will properly protect your expensive electronic equipment.

A common mistake people make is that they try to save money and buy a surge protector that gives little or no protection to their expensive electronic equipment.

With a better understanding you'll be able to select the right one. First of all, let me explain what it does. The purpose of a surge protector is to divert voltage spikes safely to ground rather than letting it enter the sensitive circuits of your equipment.

Voltage spikes can come through the power line and or through the telephone line. So both need to be protected if connected to your equipment.

Where do these spikes come from?

Under normal conditions our electric line is pretty clean with a steady voltage (120 volts in the United States). But in some cases usually caused by external forces, erratic fluctuations of the voltage occur. These fluctuations can get pretty extreme if there is heavy equipment on the line that draws a lot of current and shuts off and on often.

For example, if you have a refrigerator or air conditioner on the same line as your computer, you may very well be getting interference that can damage the computer or cause crashes or unexpected reboots. That interference can cause extreme voltage spikes that can ruin your equipment. Any spikes of high voltage need to be re-channeled to ground.

Power surges and voltage spikes can occur either from lightning or from high power equipment that is on the same circuit and which can be causing surges as it flips on and off.

The average surge protector will not protect your equipment from lightning strikes. If this is a major problem in the area where you live or work, then you need to consider a full-building protection with an external lightning arrestor that diverts lightning strikes to ground.

If this is your concern, check with your power company and your telephone company. Ask what precautions they have taken to protect you and what recourse you have in case their lightning protection fails.

How To Rate Surge Protectors

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So what do you look for to select a good surge protector? You need to pay attention to clamping voltage and joules.

You want a low clamping voltage. This is the amount of voltage that is let through. You don't want to let through too high a voltage, as it will blow your equipment. The standard clamping for a 120-volt line is 330 volts. Don't buy anything that lets more than that through.

You also want a protector that can absorb as much energy as possible before blowing itself out. This is measured in joules. The higher this number, the longer will be the life expectancy of your surge protector.

If this absorption rate is low you may only be protected for a single event. Then you need to get a new surge protector. This is another mistake many people make. They don't realize that the surge protector is not going to protect them indefinitely.

If you use one that has a really high joule rating, then it is possible that it will last through many surges. I suggest anything over 3000 joules. Anything less and you're equipment may not be protected if you get more than one high voltage spike before replacing the surge protector.

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The bottom line is that you want to protect your equipment. But you also don't want to keep buying new surge protectors each time they get zapped.

If you use one that has a really high joule rating, then it is possible that it will last through many surges. I suggest anything over 3000 joules. Anything less and your equipment may not be protected if you get more than one high voltage spike before replacing the surge protector.

So what would I recommend? It all depends on your situation and your budget. But taking everything I just explained into account, go to a good electronics store and price different brands. There are a number of good manufacturers such as Belkin and APC. Remember to pay attention to the joules (the higher the better) and the clamping voltage (basically around 330 volts).

Some surge protectors have LED lights to indicate that it is working and you are protected. Many Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) have surge protectors built in.

You can also find power strips with surge protection. If you find it useful to combine these, that’s fine.

Look for one that has the outlets arranged to allow room for all the large transformer adapters you may have such as for your printer or cable modem.

You will also want to include surge protection on your phone lines if they are connected to your equipment too. So look for one that includes protected phone line jacks. Or make sure the phone company installed surge protection on each phone line coming into your premises.

You may even want to consider a whole house surge protector, which needs to be installed by an electrician. In the long-run, this could save some of your equipment that wouldn't have been protected otherwise.

Once you have a better understanding of the problem and how surge protection actually works as well as its limitations, you’ll have a better chance of protecting your costly electronic equipment.

If you want to get a more in-depth knowledge of the workings of a surge protector, I recommend reading about Surge Protection on Wikipedia. But before you go, please consider rating this article with the buttons below if you found this information useful. Thanks.

Copyright © 2010 Glenn Stok

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