Autumn is here

Autumn is here, and winter is on the horizon. Winter storms bring downed power lines and power outages. Power protection for your TV, and Pc is a must, and we discuss the difference of extending your wall outlets, and protecting the things that use more than one outlet.

If you are reading this, then you must be the one who does most of your families “Techy Stuff”, and you understand the difference between an outlet strip, and a surge protector. Wait, you don’t? OK, let’s clarify that indifference right now.

Outlet Strip

An outlet strip is just what it implies, a strip of outlets, usually more than three in a row. They are cheap, under $3.00, Some have a rocker switch, that turns on and off the power, some even have a resettable circuit breaker, that is there so if you melt your appliance, it trips the breaker so you don’t start a fire in the wall. It Does NOT prevent electrical surges. Power goes out, the switch/ breaker keeps it from going back in. These are good for extending outlets were more than 2 are needed on the wall. Christmas Lights are good for this, not good for protecting TVs, Computers, gaming equipment, laptops. IF you have any of these devices plugged into an outlet strip, look at the backside of the strip, you should see a disclaimer stating that “this device does not protect equipment from Electrical Surges or Lightning strikes”. You are playing with fire, so to speak. Use your own judgment, but if it were me, I would invest in the following…

Surge Protector

This is an outlet strip on steroids, usually costing over $40.00 for the TV & PC equipment model. They carry an insurance of $50,000.00 or more against property loss due to a lightning strike, or power surge. They are a single use item, hopefully you never have to use that single fuse, but if you do, $40.00 is a lot cheaper than a new TV, or PC. The fuse is designed to blow in a Nano second, twice the speed of a blink of your eye, and that stops the power surge from coming in and traveling up to your TV. The better units have at least 8 outlets, cable TV in and out, Phone line in and out jacks a proper ground and supply light. The best unit to protect your TV, Xbox, and Computer for under $50.00 is a “Monster MP AV 775G Audio Video Power Center with Monster Green Power”. 1 wide-spaced outlet fits bulky power charger without blocking adjacent outlets, 2160 Joules of protection, 7 surge-protected AC outlets, Ceramic-encased MOVs reduce risk of fire caused by power surges, Dual Mode Plus power protection automatically disconnects from dangerous power conditions and sounds and an alarm. They will replace up to $400,000 worth of your equipment if it’s damaged by power conditions.

As a side note, “2160 Joules of protection,” a joule is the measure of energy absorption. The higher rating in joules a device measures, the better the device is. With regards to surge protection, when the Joules ratings are higher, the surge protector is capable of handling a larger surge in a single event before it needs replacing. Think of it as the life expectancy of the surge protection device. The prescribed joules rating can be misleading though, because surges range in severity and the MOVs inside the surge protector (MOV stands for Metal Oxide Varistor, a small semiconductor responsible for stopping the surge) will degrade every time a surge is encountered.

Remember, that surges happen daily in an average home. So, a surge device that has been hit by several surges will not be as effective against its joule rating as it would just out of the box.