Surge Protector
If you’ve been looking for the best way to protect electrical equipment in your home from electrical surges, then you would be wise to invest in a surge protector for your home. While not every type of surge suppressor is right for your needs you can find one easily by knowing what you are looking for. The following information will help you in choosing the right power surge protector for your home.
When considering the best surge protector you need to know what to look for. If you are protecting your personal computer then you do not want to spend five dollars on a basic power strip. Basically these offer a convenient way to plug many items into a two prong outlet. It won’t provide protection if your outlet experiences a power surge. Being unprotected is the surest way to damage your equipment.
You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on surge protection either. Unless you are running a major electrical operation at your home and choose to run whole house surge protectors, a mid range price tag on a surge protector will suffice. You can find one of top quality for around $25 at any home improvement store. It doesn’t need a lot of bells and whistles either. Look for one that can take enough voltage to protect your computer, for example, and one that alerts you that it is functioning properly. These will have a green light or some kind of indicator on them to let you know they are working properly.
The basic guideline to help you determine which kinds of home surge protectors you will need is outlined below. These vary in price from a basic extension cord to an Uninterruptable Power Supply, which costs hundreds of dollars.
- You basic power strip. As stated, this is a simple strip of about four to six outlets. It doesn’t provide much more than a convenient way to implement many applications with one outlet. These are not recommended for serious electrical equipment like desktops or air conditioners.
. These will look similar to a basic power strip but will vary in range of protection based on simple needs. You could easily find a quality APC surge protector in the mid twenty dollar range which will protect your computer or your air conditioner from power surges or damage.- A Power Surge Station. A surge station sits on the floor and has a main cord that plugs into your outlet. It offers high voltage clean power surge protection. Oftentimes you have the option of a phone jack to help protect your landline phone and many include circuit breakers. They run a little over $30 up to $100.
- The UPS, or Uninterruptible Power Supply. These are the home theaters of power surge protectors. They are about the size of a hard drive and have every feature of the surge station but they convert AC power to DC power and utilize a battery to store the energy in case of an emergency. While it isn’t really a surge protector it will allow you time to save your work and shut down your computer. The disadvantages of a UPS are one, it may suffer damage itself in a power surge and two, it can cost over $150.
You should be able to discern which devices are the best surge protectors based on the above guidelines. Most of the time a quality power strip will be all you need to protect your small, low tech electrical equipment. While shopping for a surge protector, review the UL ratings on the package to see how much voltage the cord can take. If the one you are looking at does not have a UL rating, do not purchase the unit. While it may seem like an unnecessary worry, choosing the best surge protector is serious business when it comes to your electrical needs.
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