Surge Suppressors

[Halo]

Just curious -- anyone ever had a problem using too many surge suppressors?  

When I consider that most rooms in the house have two or three double plug electrical outlets, I'm amazed how many extra connections are now in use via surge suppressors.  

I've had electricians check my house electrical supply and things that use it, and the verdict is always everything is fine.  

Never had any indications of problems, but still, I wonder ... e.g., my main computer room has three double-connection wall outlets.  One usually is empty, one has a surge suppressor with only a lamp and CD player plugged in, but the other has the main computer surge suppressor with seven devices plugged in.

So in the main computer room most days I am using at least nine electrical connections with a potential for 16 in a room designed for six.  

Other main uses of surge suppressors and their additional plugs are for downstairs computer and rec room TV and stereo system.  

Have any of you ever had any home electrical problems that could be traced to using too many surge suppressors (i.e., in effect multiplying the electrical outlets designed into your home)?

[wrag]

I don't use surge supressors.  

They protect against overages only.

Underages can kill a power supply by placing to great a strain on it.

I use a UPS.  Power out here fluctuates too much.

Lost a power supply once to continual power fluctuations.  

When the power supply went it took the video card and motherboard with it.

[llama]

I can't tell you how many weird hardware failures I've solved over the years by adding a UPS to a system where there was once only a power strip.

I mean, there are locations I service where two hard drives, one CD ROM, and one memory stick all failed in the same computer in one year! In went a UPS, and the hardware failures stopped.

-Llama

[eagl]

There are a couple of types of uninterruptable power supplies.  The cheaper ones only condition the power source when external power is interrupted or falls below a specific quality, and then it switches to battery.  More expensive and possibly "better" ones are always "on", and generate their own conditioned power 100% of the time.  These always-on ones are better for 2 reasons.  First, they always provide conditioned power so you will never ever see a fluctuation in power.  Second, a power supply that must switch between external and self-generated power will inevitably cause a small but noticeable power transient dip/spike when making the switchover, while an always-on UPS is always generating it's own power so you don't see that same dip and surge when the external power fails and it switches over to battery power.

I run the cheaper type, but spend a little extra to get an APC brand UPS because they have a decent reputation and I've never had a problem with them.  My computer ran continually through 2 North Carolina hurricanes while on an APC UPS, and in 10 years I have never had a computer fail while on an APC UPS.  Others who research this stuff for a living tell me that there are better alternatives, but the stores near me only sell APC and since they've worked great for me in the past, I'm not in a huge hurry to switch brands.

Jerry Pournelle, a BYTE magazine columnist who fuxors up computers for a living, recommends a different brand, but I can't remember which one.  He's done a fair amount of research and he only recommends what he uses and likes, so I figure his opinions are probably as valid as anyone elses facts.

[GunnerCAF]

Halo,

Outlets and wiring are protected by an overcurrent device (breaker or fuse) in your electric panel.  The number of outlets you can have on a 20 amp circuit can be 1 to about 13 by code.  It isn't the number of outlets on a circuit, but it's what you have plugged into the outlets.  As long as you are not tripping your circuit breaker, you should be fine.  That is, if your house is wired to code  

Most surge supressors also will have a built-in breaker that will trip if you put too much load on the surge supressor.

In my old computer room, I used to use an electric space heater some times of the year.  This would kick a fuse out now and then.

Gunner

[Halo]

Thanks, guys.  I always like to be reassured about electricity.  The area behind my computer looks like a snake pit with all the wires and cords.  

It's a battle to keep the wife out of there with her (shudder) vacuum.  Honest, dear, I'll clean the computer area myself ... honest.

She's pretty computer savvy herself, so she knows not to mess with the entanglement.

[Soulyss]

Panamax makes a great line of surge suppressors and power conditioners up to and including a new UPS piece.  Good stuff all around, a lot of it protects against underages.  





Panamax Website

Whatever you do don't buy a MonsterPower piece,  I've seen them do some scary things, I wouldn't trust it to protect anything.

[GunnerCAF]

The back of my comptuer is a tangled mess.  I built a table that has a raised section on the back half of the table to put the monitor on, and run wires under.  But it's a loosing battle to keep the wires neat.

Several years ago, I had to go to the hospital and ended up in emergency.  They had me wired up to a bunch of machines and IVs.  My wife called me and they tried to had the phone to me through the tangled mess.  I told the nurse "I look like the back of my comptuter."  I did get a laugh out of her

Gunner

[Blue Mako]

Do UPS's protect against lightning related power surges?

I have a simple surge protector on my PC but just unplug it when there's a storm around.  Sometimes I'm not home when the PC's left on though, waiting to come home some day to a smoking wreck where my PC used to be...

[eagl]

A good UPS will provide good surge protection.  Expensive ones will run off the battery 100% of the time, less expensive ones will run off the wall socket until the power is disrupted and quickly switch to battery as soon as any problem with the external power is detected.  Then when the power is back to normal, the UPS should go back to normal operation.

[OOZ662]

Originally posted by Blue Mako
Do UPS's protect against lightning related power surges?

UPSes use fuses, as in glass tubes that break when overused, to protect against surging. If lightning has traveled a couple thousand feet and decides to hit your compy, sure the fuse will blow, but what's another inch to a lightning bolt?

Whenever a lightning storm starts, unplug everything that can catch fire or send shrapnel flying through your head if you're really that worried.

Sleep well tonight

[bloom25]

There are three different power filtering techniques employed by consumer level equipment.  Some devices out there use all three.  Probably the best consumer level device out there is the Omnismart line of UPSes from Tripplite.  The Omnismart line has surge supression, line conditioning, and an inverter with batteries in a single unit.

From a technical standpoint, a good surge supressor makes use of choke coils, a fuse or circuit breaker, and MOVs (metal oxide varistors) to provide protection from transient voltage surges.  A choke coil has the effect of reducing how quickly the voltage on the line can change, and is the primary mode of protection for anything other than a very large surge.  Larger surges in voltage can be controlled using MOVs.  An MOV is a device that is designed to essentially short out and clamp the line once a certain threshold voltage is exceeded.  This causes the fuse to blow or circuit breaker to trip.  Cheap surge supressors use only a few MOVs and a fuse or breaker.  This provides some protection only from very large surges in voltage (i.e. lightning).

A line conditioner is a transformer with multiple input taps.  A line conditioner  is capable of accepting a wide range of input voltages (typically 80 - 160 V) and adjusting the output voltage to around 120V.  Thus protection is provided from the majority of brownout and overvoltage conditions.  The inclusion of a line conditioner is what typically seperates a good UPS from a cheap one.  

An inverter is a devices that accepts   a DC input voltage (typically from a battery) and outputs something like 120V AC.  (I did mean to say "something like" because consumer grade inverters output what is deemed a "modified sine wave."  Basically this is a square wave.)  An inverter provides backup in the case of a complete loss of power.  They do NOT provide protection from partial brownouts.  In the case of the input voltage dropping below a certain level (usually 70 - 80V) the mains are disconnected and the output plugs switched to the inverter.  No consumer grade UPS is going to be running from the inverter all the time.  (Consumer grade inverters will cause noise issues in audio and video equipment.  They can also cause damage to certain types of electrical equipment if used for long periods of time.)