surge protector / UPS?

peter tron

peter tron

peter tron

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i friend recently lost his very expensive pc rig due to a power surge.

this worried me, as i have spent a lot on mine.

he had surge protection, but it still failed.

i searched and read a thread here just now where people were saying UPS is superior.

i need to speak with people here to get a good balanced set of answers before i go ahead.

br

baz
 
I was once given a UPS that had protected a computer and monitor from an 11000 volt power surge which fried everything else in the same room. Only needed a couple of VDRs replacing and it was good for another 5 years before the battery leaked and ruined it! This was an APC unit. I have used them ever since.
 
You want it made by Heckler&Koch?

Unless it's double conversion/on-line UPS always rectifying mains and then forming AC from DC, protection against fast transients isn't surge protector replacing:
There's some delay before normal UPS first recognizes abnormal mains voltage and can open relay contacts to disconnect load from mains.
During that time filtering of over voltage is relying on varistors and such components.
And UPSes usually have lower surge energy rating than higher up surge protectors.

Besides those parts wearing down from absorpting those surges.
And of course surge protector is cheaper to replace than whole UPS, if you have lots of surges.
 
Did this surge damage anything else in your friends house at the time or just the PC? I've seen a brownout take out (power off) things like my lights and TV, but my PC was fine. Not had any surge damage myself.

A decent PSU should be able to handle a surge just fine, eg not sending damaging power levels through the 12V 5V rails, it should just safely cut off worst case, then you just power it up again or replace fuse etc. Get one of those heavy UPS with a battery in, unless you are getting struck by lightning, that should be able to handle anything.
 
I had a power surge (lightning strike nearby) fry my PSU before, but it was a cheapo PSU and the rest of the PC (and everything else in the building) was OK.

Most consumer surge protectors use a metal oxide varistor (MOV), there are other types of surge protector but they're more expensive. Problem with MOVs is they only block a certain number of surges before they fail. Every time an MOV blocks a surge it is degraded/damaged, when it is fully degraded you are no longer protected from surges, but it will continue to supply electricity to your devices so there's no way you would know.

Bigger problem is that the majority of surge protectors give the user zero indication when a surge has been successfully blocked, no indication of the MOV's condition or even any indication when it has failed. There are probably thousands (maybe millions) of old surge protectors in people's homes right now that are (unknown to the owner) giving zero protection because the MOV has long since failed. You can buy more expensive ones that do give indications of surge events or MOV condition, but it's usually easier and cheaper to buy the less expensive ones and just make sure they are replaced every few years regardless.
 
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