Power surges can cause major damage to electrical items in your home. Did you know there are ways to protect your products from electrical surges? A surge is an unexpected increase in voltage in an electrical current that causes damage to electrical equipment. A surge will enter a home through any number of avenues. The most obvious is through the power lines. Less obvious is through the telephone lines, cable/satellite connections, water lines and any other metallic system that connects to your home. So, to protect against surges, you need to take a threepronged approach.
- Get an electrician to survey and test your home’s grounding system.
- Protect your electrical service entrance with a surge device. It can be installed behind the meter or at the main electric panel. The device will “clamp” the surge and reduce its power. These devices destroy themselves rather than allowing the surge to pass through.
- Protect expensive electronics at their point of use. Computers and entertainment equipment are prime examples. Use a quality power strip or wall device product with the power surge feature from a manufacturer such as Monster, Belkin, Tripp Lite, or APC, to name a few. Look for one with a joule rating of at least 1,000, a connected equipment warranty and compatibility with digital signals from cable and satellite. Some have a “smart” strip that turns off all but one connected device when not in use.
