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Protect Your
Investment Your computer: it’s a tool you work with most every day. Whether you’ve spent $50 or $5,000 on it, you will want to protect it from electrical spikes, surges, and lightning damage. To do this, you will need a surge protector. Most good ones on the market today will come with a system guarantee (similar to an insurance policy). This means that the manufacturer of the protector agrees to cover any damages to your system while it is properly attached to their product. Be sure the amount of the guarantee is high enough to cover any damages you may incur. Also, read the fine print, which states any limitations, and under what circumstances they will not reimburse you. Choose a protector by a manufacturer that has been around for a while in case you do need to file a claim. One of the most
common types of damage, which many people may not consider, occurs when a surge
enters the computer via the telephone line.
Make sure the protector you purchase has an RJ-11 jack (standard
telephone wire connection) to plug your modem into.
Does your system have a television tuner card?
If so, you will want a coaxial connector as well.
Any type of connection that runs into the system from outdoors should be
protected. Also, your system must
be plugged into a three-prong grounded outlet in order for the protector to work
properly. Don’t confuse a
circuit breaker strip with a surge protector.
A “power strip” as they are commonly called has only a small circuit
breaker on it that will trip if it detects a problem.
There are no MOV’s (metal oxide varistors) in a power strip.
MOV’s act as electrical gates to deflect a charge before it reaches
your computer. A good protector
will have MOV’s on all three wires (hot, ground, and neutral).
Lesser cost ones will have one on the hot side only.
A new type of protector on the market has an inductor and bridge circuit
rather than MOV’s. What this does
is capture the current from the surge, then release it in smaller amounts over
time. This type of design may help
lessen the severity of fluctuations on your equipment.
Protection ratings for surge protectors are based on joules.
A joule is simply a unit of energy.
The more joules the surge protector can dissipate the better protection
it is. Your
protector should take the brunt of the damage to protect your system.
Once it has done its job it will most likely be damaged.
Dispose of it and get a new one. You
may want to consider a surge protector with a built-in UPS.
No, I don’t mean the little brown truck!
A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) is a battery backup system.
It will keep your system up and running during an outage long enough for
you to save your data and shut down properly.
Even
the best surge protector may not survive a direct lightning strike.
The only way to be 100% sure your system cannot be damaged during a storm
is to disconnect all lines from your system.
The rest of the time, a good surge protector is your best bet. |
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