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Is Your Home Theater's AC Power Protected?

  • Yes

    Votes: 291 81.5%
  • No

    Votes: 66 18.5%

Is Your Home Theater's AC Power Protected?

15K views 113 replies 80 participants last post by  Gates 
#1 ·


Many things can disrupt AC power and harm audio/video gear. What steps have you taken to protect your home-theater investment?

I live in Los Angeles, where there is little chance of lightning strikes, and I've rarely experienced brownouts or blackouts in decades. But I realize this is unusual—in many parts of the country and around the world, there are plenty of things that can disrupt the AC power in your home, which can potentially damage the equipment in a home theater. This leads me to wonder how many AVS members have taken steps beyond cheap surge-suppressor power strips to protect their precious home-theater gear from power spikes, lightning strikes, voltage sags, and power failures.

How about you? Have you installed a voltage regulator, surge suppressor (other than a cheap power strip), lightning rod, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), or other power protection? What have you done in this regard and why—or why not?

Note: This poll is not about power optimization—I'll ask about that next week.

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#2 · (Edited)
I have a Tripplite UPS/line conditioner on the PN60F8500 and the PS3, and a Tripplite surge suppressor/line conditioner on the rest of the A/V gear. There is also a whole-house surge suppressor on the incoming AC line. I live in the US Virgin Islands, and power outages and brownouts are frequent and damaging, occurring at least once a week for from five minutes to several hours. Everything that is electronic, including the appliances, are at least on good quality surge suppressors. Even so I still unplug the plasma when the power goes out if I am home, as the surges usually occur when the power resumes and it was hard enough shipping the plasma here in the first place.
 
#3 ·
i put yes, but i don't actually know for sure.

all my gear has always been plugged into some kind of surge protector, right now basically everything is plugged into a pair of UPS's. now, i'm not expecting protection from a lightning strike, but i think it gives me protection from common power related issues.

personally i've never had anything damaged from a power failure before, but, i did lose all my save data on an xbox360 one time. that's what encouraged me to grab a UPS in the first place. so for me, that's what i'm most worried about, losing power while saving/transferring data on the PC or game consoles.
 
#4 · (Edited)
I use two layers of defense against surges. The whole house is protected by a Leviton Type 2 surge protection device (51110-PTC) attached to the service panel. It also protects against surges coming in over the cable line running into the house. I then use Type 3 local surge protection devices at the location of my equipment. In the family room, a Tripp Lite AV10IRG protects all the AV components and in the theater everything is protected by a Belkin Pure AV PF60. I also plan to replace a couple of my regular outlets with surge protecting outlets for high power amplifiers that probably draw enough current to not put through the power conditioner.


We recently had a short brownout for a couple of seconds when the power line across the street went out in a windstorm, sending my neighbors into darkness. My TV and systems attached to the Tripp Lite did not even notice the glitch, while the wireless surround speakers that use modern SMPS (switch mode power supplies) and are not on secondary surge protection went completely haywire for a second or two.


I put in the whole house surge protection after a transformer on a pole down the block blew and fried the inverter used by my elevator. It put enough current into the inverter that the heat melted a phone line that was resting on the bottom of the steel control box which was above the inverter. The surge also damaged the compressor on my heat pump. Interestingly enough the surge only seemed to affect systems pulling 240V and did not affect my electric dryer.
 
#5 ·
Yup.

Cyber Power CP1285AVRLCD
  • 1285VA / 750W Simulated Sine Wave UPS
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  • Multifunction LCD Display
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#7 ·
Yes, but possibly a bit overkill, have a Liebert GXT2, powers 3 circuits covering all the pc's and theater equipment. 6kVA/4.2kW capacity, 240V in and out feeding a second breaker panel that I pull the circuits from. It has logged ~160V on both inputs, which shouldn't be above 120V. Power company is lousy plus lightning in south florida. :)
 
#9 ·
I have an Eaton whole house surge arrester on my main breaker panel. I also have APC UPSs on all my electronic devices. I have had lightning strike a tree about 50 feet behind my house...I know there was an electric surge through the wiring in the house since one of my APCs has the ability to record surges, etc., and reported it (and mitigated it). Nothing was damaged.
 
#10 ·
For the stereo I have two Furman devices, the Elite-15PFi, plugged into a SPR-20i voltage regulator. Also utilizing aftermarket power cords from Wireworld and Shunyata, which help filter a little more noise.

My computer setup is plugged into a Tripplite Isobar HT1210ISOCTR.
 
#13 ·
Just bought a newly built home and plan to install a whole home surge system in the main panel.
My past experience is the reason I'd rather be protected then not.

Growing up, my father who is my influence for my home theater sickness, lost a big screen TV to a brown out. I was in front of the massive Mitsubishi (I was 6 years old, everything was massive) and the power went into a surge. The brown out made the weirdest noise and all these popping noises starting coming from the TV. I don't think I have ever seen my father run so fast to pull a plug out of the wall. Unfortunately it was too late.

Good news is we got a bigger TV a week later :)
 
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#43 ·
Growing up, my father who is my influence for my home theater sickness, lost a big screen TV to a brown out. I was in front of the massive Mitsubishi (I was 6 years old, everything was massive) and the power went into a surge. The brown out made the weirdest noise and all these popping noises starting coming from the TV. I don't think I have ever seen my father run so fast to pull a plug out of the wall. Unfortunately it was too late.

Good news is we got a bigger TV a week later :)
Well at least that had a happy ending. :D
 
#16 ·
Im running UPS on all my equipment but surge suppressors... :)
 
#17 ·
I run a Tripp-Lite SmartOnline series UPS- it converts incoming line voltage to DC, into a battery bank, and the devices then get a regulated AC voltage from conversion from the battery packs (double conversion). I have mine mounted in the bottom of my equipment rack and a second smaller non-rack-mountable one feeding the projector (and wireless router/modem).
They're expensive, but I've never lost a component.


http://www.tripplite.com/products/series/sid/934
 
#18 ·
Don't have any particular reason to have any of that so I voted no (no need to keep a computer running nor do I have a projector). I moved not long ago and the local opinion was lightning would not be a worry otherwise I might consider a whole house surge protector. We have usual good electricity found most places in the US, occasional power outages the gear has been thru many times, a few in the new place, too. Am I missing something?
 
#29 ·
Well true but a little over what the typical Home Theater would need.
I'd say these are more appropriate:

http://www.controlledpwr.com/Commercial_Power_Purifier_Conditioner.html

Power conditioning comes up here a lot. As I have posted on other similar
threads before starting your power conditioning project it's best to employ
the services of a good electrician. A good start would be something like the
above but the secondary would be isolated from the mains and the electrician
would drive a decent earth ground for it. Common Mode spikes are very
destructive especially in lightning areas.
 
#21 ·
I use a tripplite true online/double conversion UPS that I modified with a quieter fan and thermostatic fan control. I also put together a second one for a friend, and may do a third if I can find another used unit inexpensively enough.

Sent from my XT897 using Tapatalk
 
#22 ·
Power protection

I have a APC UPS on my Sony tv. Also, Furman Elite 15 and AC 215 on the home theater gear.
I live in Quebec city and we rarely have power outage or freaky voltage swings.
Happy listening
 
#23 ·
I use a few line of defenses for my systems,
1: EP-2050+EP-2775(at main panel)
2:60a+20a balanced Torus(240V) for front and back rack
3:Surgex SX-115x2 for computers and TVs
4:EP-digiplugs(4) for laptop and computers
Just in case:eek:
Had fried two F-113's that were not connected to the Torus
The other two that were connected ............NOTHING:)
 
#27 · (Edited)
Is Your Home Theater's AC Power Protected?


Many things can disrupt AC power and harm audio/video gear. What steps have you taken to protect your home-theater investment?

This leads me to wonder how many AVS members have taken steps beyond cheap surge-suppressor power strips to protect their precious home-theater gear from power spikes, lightning strikes, voltage sags, and power failures.

How about you? Have you installed a voltage regulator, surge suppressor (other than a cheap power strip), lightning rod, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), or other power protection? What have you done in this regard and why—or why not?

Note: This poll is not about power optimization—I'll ask about that next week.
The key is "Is Your Home Theater's AC Power Protected?" , while I said yes guess it's better to state "AC Power Protected to what level"?

Mine is basic, just a "Panamax M5300-PM for clean power" that all my gear except the Subs are plugged into (the PJ is ), the Subs go thru a Furman 20amp sequencer that also manage's the thump on/off (similar to this http://furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=PS-8R_II )

There's been countless debates on putting the PJ on a UPS in the projector forums, for cost ROI I decided against that.
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/24-di...-msrp/1084144-do-i-need-ups-my-projector.html

In 6+ years of use I've never had any issue needing a UPS for that PJ bulb, so save your money and forget UPS for PJ.
 
#50 ·
The key is "Is Your Home Theater's AC Power Protected?" , while I said yes guess it's better to state "AC Power Protected to what level"?

Mine is basic, just a "Panamax M5300-PM for clean power" that all my gear except the Subs are plugged into (the PJ is ), the Subs go thru a Furman 20amp sequencer that also manage's the thump on/off (similar to this http://furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=PS-8R_II )

There's been countless debates on putting the PJ on a UPS in the projector forums, for cost ROI I decided against that.
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/24-di...-msrp/1084144-do-i-need-ups-my-projector.html

In 6+ years of use I've never had any issue needing a UPS for that PJ bulb, so save your money and forget UPS for PJ.
I went ahead and spent under $50 once at Staples (they have free shipping, too) and bought an APC 350 - then ceiling mounted it behind the projector. For less than $50 spent only once, I have peace of mind that my $300 bulb will be safe...and the $300 bulb after that one...and the projector from a lightning strike near the house...and...


But I do not begrudge anyone for not buying anything. It comes down to personal views. For me, the peace of mind is worth the cost. For you, your worry level is far lower than me, so you already have peace of mind. :)
 
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