Question about surge protectors? still confused after research

I recommend the Belkin PF-30. It includes automatic overvoltage protection, which shuts down the power if the line voltage reaches a dangerous level. For several years I've been using the larger PF-60 which is similar, just with more outlets, switching options, and LCD display that displays line voltage and current draw. I owned a PF-30 for a while before upgrading to the PF-60.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...IN#detailspecs

Try one of these:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Inland-360...ndingMethod=rr

If you have "expensive" equipment, add a rider to your renters/apartment insurance.

surge protectors and line conditioners can actually do lots of good for electronics. now some pieces of gear have very good powersupplies and themselves are protected from most poor quality power conditions.

But at the end of the day having an inexpensive device that will sacrifice itself rather then your far more expensive gear is in fact worth it.


check out the belkin power centers, also look at anything from APC (made a name for themselves doing stuff for large data centers).

The studio I work in uses equitech balanced power units to clean up and protect the gear. and the server farm at large network installations that i manage use apc data center products.

there is a reason that studios, datacenters, theaters use power isolation, or line conditioning or surge protection gear. It extends the life of equipment, it protects equipment from catastrophic events like lightening, and it can improve performance of equipment (and not a pseudoscience claim like using fancy power cables).

emotiva states that their amps shouldnt be plugged into surge protectors or line conditioners because it limits the power going to them. but you can get whole home surge protectors to protect the amp, and also large toroidal power units like equitech gear that won't limit current.

do some more research and you will find that there is more to this then meets the eye.

should also state that there is a difference between a line conditioner and a surge protector. a surge protector stops a catastrophic surge of electricity from reaching your equipment and damaging it. a line conditioner smooths out high AND low voltage conditions which extend the life of gear, improve performance (by cleaning up noise in the line) and protect it from dangerous (to you and your gear) surges.

Matt

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I don’t know if, or how much, surge protector you need but, if you decide to buy one, consider whether you might like the additional features included with, for example, this APC UPS ES 750. – (Some current prices.)

• Master with three Controlled Outlets ~ I use this feature so that when my Receiver is turned on (or off), a cooling fan and an AV Switcher are also turned on (or off).
  
  
• Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) ~ I have a radio tuner that loses all of its presets if it loses power and a HDTV tuner that stays off after a power interruption. (The UPS eliminates both problems.)
  
  
• Defeat Audible Alarms!!! ~ You can tell it not to “Beep!….. Beep!….. Beep!….. Beep!….. Beep!......” the whole ‘beeping’ time that it’s running on battery backup. (You need a USB computer connection to set this feature but, it stays set after the computer is disconnected.)
  

Later,
Dave
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Voltage sag is the greatest single contributor to electronics equipment failures ... not surges. I'd suggest you research www.surgex.com and www.innovolt.com

A computer UPS in the range of $ 35 to $100 will be more than adequate to protect your equipment, and keep you powered, during brownouts and and power loss.

Cheers.

As an EE that now works in the power transmission field, I find that a dubious statement. It also does not gel with my personal experience with a lot of different gear in varying locations over the last couple of decades. I don't recall any gear that failed during a voltage sag; it may have shut off, but not actually broke.

That's not going to buy you a lot of storage capacity or VA. You need to size a UPS for the load and the expected time of operation.

I would only recommend a UPS for protecting the globes in a projector or RPTV or to allow time to shut down a PC, whether HTPS or not in the case of an outage.

The bulbs in a projector are as just as happy if you don't cool them down. Just don't jostle the project until they cool down. They are more fragile when hot.

Most (but not all) power outages in my neighborhood last between one second and on minute. A UPS will keep the STB operating through these short outages rather than waiting on the box's long, long re-boot. Some projectors have a timer that will delay re-starting the projector.

So whether the bulb does or does-not need to cool-down a UPS may be a good idea.

Yes, some of the newer PJs are capable of restriking a hot bulb. Most PJs aren't though.

There are definitely reasons to have a UPS. But bulb life isn't one of them.