What are two surge suppressor specifications?

Answer 1

The clamping voltage is the threshold beyond which the suppressor begins its protection. Clamping speed is how quickly a device reacts to a change in voltage. The joule rating determines a device's capacity to absorb electricity. These all should be checked.

Answer 2

The ones I know of are:

Surge Dampeners. These use a fairly flimsy device, similar to a fuse, to disconnect the circuit in the event of a surge. They usually don't kick in until after the electronics have been exposed to part of the surge, and so aren't ideal for sensitive and expensive electronics.

Line Conditioners. These feed the unstable wall power in and regulate it to a more smooth, stable voltage and frequency, making for less wear and tear on electronic components connected. However, they cannot handle large surges like Surge Dampeners and UPS devices, and have no protection on blackouts lasting a second or more.

UPS or Uninterruptable Power Supply: These use a battery backup (usually 12v deep cycle gel cell) and an inductor, dampener and conditioner to transform incoming 120v wall power to 12v and charge the batteries. In the event of a surge, power outage, brownout, or major voltage irregularity, the device switches to the battery to provide stable power for a limited time, until the power returns to stable.

Some may run devices solely off the battery rather than switching, which is usually preferable for protection as the battery will not likely surge or spike under any normal condition. These tend to be more expensive, and may have shorter life spans.

Some surge protectors also combine technologies. For example, some may combine supressors and conditioners, and a few may use a long-term conditioner that can provide several seconds of power to electronics in the event of extremely short-term blackouts or brownouts.

It is usually safe to combine suppressors, as long as you read the instructions to ensure first, and do not pull too much power from any one surge protector. (For example if it's rated for 400 watts, you can plug a 200 watt device into it, and then plug the 400w protector into a 1500w protector. But do not do this the other way around, or plug two very similar (500w and 500w, or 400w and 450w) together because the increase in resistance could cause them to overheat, fail, or even start a fire.

I, personally, use a 45,000 joule surge protector (fuse style), which then has a 4,500 joule dampener-conditioner, and finally a pair of 450w UPS (with 20,000 joule protector built-in). But then I also have $4k in electronics on that circuit. =)

I spent a lot of time making sure I bought surge protectors rated for that to prevent overload or other problems.

It's generally a good idea not to plug devices in that use 1000w or more into a surge protector, as this is way beyond the normal load for such devices. Heaters, refrigerators, microwaves, stoves, fans, lights, coffee makers, washers, dryers, dishwashers, most kitchen appliances, and other A/C motors and the like do NOT need surge protection under most cases, as they are far more hardy and robust and can usually take incredible abuse. (most lights can run at 400 volts!)

Televisions, older stereo systems, CRT monitors, and the like can benefit from surge protection but don't need a great deal, as they're more hardy and robust. You don't want big surges, though, for obvious reasons. And if it's expensive.. probably a good idea to protect it anyway. Better safe than sorry!

MP3 players, entertainment systems, VCRs, DVDs, A/C adapters (such as for phones, battery chargets, etc) video game consoles, models, routers, hubs, switches, and obviously computers can all benefit from use of a surge protector, conditioner and dampener. These are much more sensitive to power spikes and even a few stray volts can damage them.

Typically, a UPS is only needed for devices that can be damaged by suddenly turning off, such as computers and devices that use long-term storage like TiVo's and DVRs. Losing power during a write can cause these devices to malfunction, so a UPS is a good addition. Except for computers, most devices don't need much power, so the cheap 150w and 250w ones for under $70 are fine.

But for the computer, get at least 450w, and try to match it to your computer's power supply. (Halve that twice for laptops- most laptops use only 100w or less)

Answer 3

Hard Wired and PCB.