A nice lady came in the other day with a expensive surge protector she bought from a big box store. She wanted to know why after she spent all that money, does her PC still need a new power supply.
Most people think a surge protector will protect your pc in the event of a storm of lightining strike. That is most certianly false. They probably didnt lie to you when you bought it, you just didnt know what you were buying.
A surge is another name for a power spike. Its when the voltage in the wires exceedes whats its supposed to be (115v in U.S. homes) for a short period of time. Surges happen all day and night in homes. Everytime the ac comes on, fridge starts running, or garage door goes up. Those motors put an instant strain on the electrical system evey time they start. That can either lower the voltage on the line or cause it to go up depending on other appliances in the home.
Today’s sophisticated electonics require a constant voltage to operate. Whenever the voltage changes, electonics have a hard time regulating the power it needs to opertate. That can cause things to break down early or blow up.
A surge protector tries to level out spikes. A good one may even prop up a low voltage condition. If the spike it too much it should send the overage to ground (which is why grounding is important).
Some of the el-chepo models are only glorified extension cords with a power light. They offer no spike protection at all.
So why didnt yours work for that lightining strike? A typical power surge is 10-25 volts. A lightining stike could be 50,000- 250,000 volts. There is no way some $20 piece of plastic is going to stop lightining.
They do make systems that protect from lighting strikes, and cost several thousand dollars.
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