Protecting home PC's

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Over voltage and under voltage a UPS is the item, If the UPS had built in TVSS that that is better.

Protection from Transients IMO would be a good quality properly installed TVSS at the main service and a good quality TVSS plug Strip.
 
the reality is, most pcs today have power supplies that are pretty robust. you probably don't need anything.

i would opt for a whole house unit at the service point if i felt i needed something.

the plug in strips are mostly useful as power strips, but they won't harm anything if you use them, and you will need a power strip anyway.
 
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I think the concept of "protecting" a PC against harmful power spikes and whatnot is largely market-driven. It all began way back when IBM mainframes required "isolated" grounds, and a home PC would cost a few months salary. Then the use of switched power suppies lead to harmonics problems in shared neutrals, giving birth to the "super neutral." This has lead many to believe the special orange outlet is somehow "pure" clean electricity, and the regular outlet supplys only "dirty, yucchy power" suitable only for pencil sharpeners and second hand clock radios. Like all drinking water must be bottled and imported, and the domestic supply is only good for flushing toilets.

Often, major mainframe mishaps and/or data losses are blamed on the unknown, or a convenient scapegoat, an indefensable electrical system which few who would demand answers or explainations actually understand. A lot of this fingerpointing comes from the very people who recommend solving software problems by re-booting. Computer "IT-Techs" who think mis-connecting a networked PC to a brown outet could bring down the entire mainframe.

I find it ironic. A new office floor or building will have strict guideines on supplying and transporting "conditioned" power, super neutrals, UPS power, PDU power, to protect the PCs and data which is backed-up again and again. PCs purchased on contract for a fraction of what you or I could, and yet, no one (homeowner or office engineer) thinks as much about protecting any other electronic or electromechanical investment, the loss of which could easily far outweigh the loss of a PC, or retrieving some lost data.

Who protects their heat pump, refrigerator, or HDTV? How many buildings place their card access, elevator key card, security camera systems, or building maintainence systems on "conditioned power" supplies? Even elevator banks are PC driven, yet the elevator mechanic has no problem plugging his drill into the same recetacle. So many consumer products these days contain microchips and circuit boards, yet it seems only the desktop PC is power-coddled like a naked newborn baby.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all the work generated by this misunderstood static. I find a lot of humor in the 12-wire furniture whip. I have no problem drilling and tapping an I beam for the green wire from XO right next to the "isolated" green wire which of course required cadweld. But I believe a lot of this hype has more to do with the full asile of "power protection" gizmos in CompUSA or Best Buy than reality.
 
Rectifier/charger--->battery-->inverter

The UPS is always working, ie the inverter is always drawing from the DC bus/battery, and the rectifier/charger is always converting to DC. There is also usually a bypass relay that kicks in if the whole system fails.

A lot of people think their cheap UPS works like this, but in reality they bypass themselves (sometimes w/ a buck/boost transformer to adjust for sag) and switch over via relay when the power goes out. The most you get form them under normal conditions is an MOV TVSS and some brownout help.
 
LawnGuyLandSparky said:
I find it ironic. A new office floor or building will have strict guideines on supplying and transporting "conditioned" power, super neutrals, UPS power, PDU power....
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The real irony is the belief that computers require "clean" power when (a) they will run on just about anything that looks vaguely like a flow of electrons, and (b) excepting the newest breeds of power supplies, computers chop the supply to pieces, turning a clean sine wave into a harmonic mess.

The truth of the matter is that for many businesses the value (or indeed the price) of the computers, the UPSs, the gensets, the heavy wiring is all negligible compared to the value of the data. If the data becomes unavailable, you don't have a business until you get it back, and thus some money sunk into trying to keep your data online is a very cheap investment indeed.

Example: a few years back a neutral came adrift on the supply to a computer room. The cost to replace all the power supplies was something of the order of 100K UKP. The cost of being out for a working day - well, 4000 odd staff with nothing to do, thousands of members of public turning up expecting to see someone, but couldn't be seen... Just the waste of staff time is a much bigger number than the replacement power supplies.

Now, if you've just got one PC at home... do you back it up? Thats the real issue, as sooner or later it will throw data away...
 
We had a wind storm in SC the day I started this thread. I came home to find my PC not working. I believe my hard drive is damaged/ destroyed.

Something happened and its to much of a coincidence for me to not believe the storm had to be to blame.

I have a non grounded system. No GEC to my receptacles.
Could this make my devices more prone to damage by surges?

I am definitely installing a TVSS at the main panel. I had that on my list to do when I got this house! I was actually looking to buy one the weekend before this happened.
 
LAYMAN JOE said:
We had a wind storm in SC the day I started this thread. I came home to find my PC not working. I believe my hard drive is damaged/ destroyed.

Something happened and its to much of a coincidence for me to not believe the storm had to be to blame.

I have a non grounded system. No GEC to my receptacles.
Could this make my devices more prone to damage by surges?

I am definitely installing a TVSS at the main panel. I had that on my list to do when I got this house! I was actually looking to buy one the weekend before this happened.
Click to expand...
your computer uses a 3 prong cord, right? computer power supplies use filters from l-g, n-g, and if there's no egc, that's going to cause problems.
 
LAYMAN JOE said:
Could this make my devices more prone to damage by surges?
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Very possible, and surges are not the only reason to ground computer systems. As with most electronics, static can also be an issue, especially when you have external connections like computers do.

I recommend running a new dedicated circuit for the computer system (or other new electronic loads, like home theater systems) when I get requests for "replacing all of the receptacles with grounded ones".
 
I also installed a TVSS on my CATV Service entrance since I have a Cable Modem and that has cleared up any issues that I had with Lightning Strikes and Fried N.I.C. Cards.
-Ed
 
mgd said:
your computer uses a 3 prong cord, right? computer power supplies use filters from l-g, n-g, and if there's no egc, that's going to cause problems.
Click to expand...

What type of problems specifically?
 
LAYMAN JOE said:
What type of problems specifically?
Click to expand...
i have experienced a friends monitor getting fried because a cheater plug was used. i never got around to opening it up to see the damage. but if the power supply has mov's and or other filters tied to ground you can rest assured they're there for a reason.
 
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