There’s nothing like the thrill of lightning and thunder after a scorching summer day. Storm clouds gather, you feel the tension in the air and zzzzap! Kaboom! There goes your computer! ZZZAPPPO! So much for that expensive flatscreen TV…
Lightning Illuminates nighttime clouds from within during an Electrical Storm in Mansfield, MA
There’s no guarantee that lightning is going to find its way into your local power grid, but why take the chance? A storm doesn’t need to be in your neighborhood to damage your equipment. A lightning strike to a utility pole can blow out transformers and within seconds send a massive surge of electricity through the wires in all directions affecting equipment in homes even miles away. If you’re lucky, you might lose a cable modem or a network card in your PC. If you’re not, you could lose a whole houseful of electronics.
There are two main types of protection on the market today, surge protectors , and the UPS, or Uninterruptable Power Supply.
Surge Strips
Surge strips, also referred to as power strips, are familiar to most as a short blocky device you plug into a power outlet and which in turn provides anywhere from 4 to 12 outlets. Before you trust your power strip for surge protection though, check it out – not all power strips are created equal. Some are designed only as a power strip, that is, they provide the convenience of extra outlets, but offer no protection whatsoever against power surges. If you want protection from surges, you must get a power strip that explicitly provides surge protection as documented on the packaging and instructions. There are some surge protectors on the market today that specify lightning protection, and also offer an insurance policy against damage. Hint: If it costs less than $10, it’s probably not providing surge protection.
Whole-house surge protection or power conditioning
Another very convenient option for surge protection is a whole-house surge protector or power conditioning equipment that your electrician can install. These are devices that wire directly into your home electrical system at its source, sense incoming surges and shunts them to ground (”discards them” so to speak). Protection of this sort is a bit more expensive as it has to be installed by an electrician, but the value of knowing that everything in the house is protected easily outweighs the cost.
UPS – Uninterruptable Power Supplies
The UPS is a different animal altogether. It is a larger and more expensive device, but in addition to surge protection, has the added benefit of containing backup batteries and is able to instantly switch from AC power to battery backup power in the event of a blackout (power outage), brownout (low power condition) or surge (high power condition).
The real benefit of the UPS, is that it works seamlessly, that is, a device such as a computer that’s powered by a UPS simply continues to run despite what disruptions your electrical system may be experiencing. What’s more, in the event of a longer term event like a blackout, the UPS provides you with a means to save any incomplete work and perform a proper shutdown of your computer that can prevent real damage to your hard drive.
Most UPS devices include cabling, software, and instructions for connecting your computer in a fashion that will cause your computer to recognize a power failure, even if you aren’t home, and will properly shut itself down thus preventing possible damage even in your absence.
Act now!
Whether you are thinking about going with simple surge protectors, whole-house electrical conditioning, or a few strategically implemented UPSes, now is the time to act before the violent storms of summer are upon us. That way, when you’re cruising down to the cape in July and see that awesome display of lightning forking down low over the horizon, you can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that back home your computers, tvs, and other expensive electronics will still be working when you return. :)
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This article was written by Andy Trask, Head Geek at Geek Housecalls, the New England area’s original traveling computer geeks, on the web at www.geekhousecalls.com. Geek Housecalls specializes in “anything computer” and, since 2001, has become the trusted in-home computer and technology support provider for over 15,000 families and small business computer users in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire. For help with your computers, gadgets, or network at home or at the office, click here to contact Geek Housecalls via the web, or call toll free:
1-877-4PC-GEEK (1-877-472-4335)
Tags: blackout, brownout, computer geek, computers, conditioning, electricity, electronics, geek, geek housecalls, home computer, insurance, lightning, lightning damage, lightning strike, power strip, protection, summer, surge, surge protector, surge strip, thunderstorm, uninterruptable power supply, ups