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#31
That is not what professionals say. Routine is to have a direct lighting strike. And nobody knows the surge existed. But that means two tasks. First you must unlearn the many myths successfully entrenched in the majority. Second, you must learn what even Franklin first demonstrates in 1752. The same principles that protected church steeples (building protection) also applies to appliance protection.
Again, because popular myths make this paragraph so difficult to understand. Both are called surge protectors. One claims to magically make surges disappear. The other does what has been done for lightning protection even 100 years ago. Either energy dissipates harmlessly outside the building. The $1 per protected appliance solution. Or energy hunts for earth ground destructively via appliances - the $25 and $150 per appliance protection. Never assume anything because two completely different devices have the same name.
Correct abut the UPS. At 480 joules or 1000 joules, it is still near zero protection. Just enough above zero so that a majority will hype it as 100% surge protection.
Yesterday, the surge took out the monitor. The next surge - permitted inside a building - will find earth ground via some other appliance. The list is long. Including furnace, dishwasher, clock radio, bathroom GFCIs, etc. How do you protect everything? What appliance most needs protection during a surge? Smoke detector. What protects that? Use the only solution that has always made direct lightning strikes irrelevant - earth one 'whole house' protector.
Most all homes are not properly grounded. If any wire inside any cable does not connect, first to earth ground, then your entire protection system is compromised. For example, AC electric is three wires. Only one connects to earth. A direct lightning strike down the street is a direct lightning strike to all household appliance via those other two unearthed wires. Effective protection means those other two wires must connect 'less than 10 feet' to earth via a 'whole house' protector. It is that simple. And never discussed where advertising educated consumers.
A UPS has one function. Protect unsaved data. A UPS in battery backup mode outputs some of the ‘dirtiest’ electricity an appliance might ever see. For example, this 120 volts UPS outputs two 200 volt square waves with a spike of up to 270 volts between those square waves. Again, which post also contains numbers? You should be asking that question with every reply. Others who were told the UPS 'cleans' electricity. Nonsense because sales brochures can lie – numeric specifications cannot.
A UPS outputs power so 'dirty' as to be harmful to small electric motors and power strip protectors. Because all electronics contain robust surge protection, that ‘dirty’ UPS is ideal electricity to all electronics. Your concern is the rare transient (typically once every seven years) that may overwhelm protection already inside appliances - including the air conditioner.
Turning it off does no protection. Will millimeters inside an air conditioner power switch stop a surge? Or course not. Either that energy MUST be earthed outside the building. Or that surge will hunt for earth ground through any appliance - powered on or off – even through the millimeter gap in any switch.
Repeated again because so many never understand it the first, second, or third time. **Protection is always about where energy dissipates. Either a surge is absorbed harmlessly outside the building. Or nothing inside the building stops that surge. Energy inside the building means the surge is hunting for earth ground destructively via appliances.** As the NIST bluntly said, "The best surge protection in the world can be useless if grounding is not done properly." That means any wire (even underground wire) that enters a building without first being earth, then all protection has been compromised. Earthing that is short (ie ‘less than 10 feet’), no sharp wire bends, and … so far this has only been the executive summary.
A solution found when informed homeowners use products from responsible companies such as General Electric, Leviton, Intermatic, Cutler-Hammer, etc (listed previously). Avoid plug-in 'miracle boxes' from APC, Belkin, Tripplite, and a master of profitable scams - Monster Cable.
See those less responsible companies? Where is the dedicated wire for the short connection to earth? Why do they avoid the entire discussion. A $3 power strip with some ten cent protector parts sells for $25 or $150. Why would they be honest?
A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.
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