The Benefits of Using a Surge Protector
The typical household wall socket provides 240 volts of power to appliances, most of which are designed to run on this standard amount of power. Sometimes a “surge” occurs, running more than 240 V into your appliances. Because the tiny chips, semiconductors and other components that make up your most useful devices are not designed to handle this much power, they run the risk of overloading and burning out.
To prevent this overload, you need a surge protector. Surge protectors divert the excess electricity of a surge away from your devices and into a built-in grounding wire where it is harmlessly dissipated.
It is common to believe that surge protectors are only necessary during thunderstorms, during which dazzling tendrils of lightning may possibly touch a nearby power source and run dangerous amounts of electricity into your home. However, there are more subtle processes at work in your home that lead to smaller power surges which will cause more frequent damage to your devices than the remote chance of lightning strikes.
If your food is stored in a refrigerator, your house is cooled by an air conditioner and your roommate’s band rehearses with loud amplifiers in your basement, your home’s power source is subject to the destabilizing effects of high-powered electrical devices. These devices contain power compressors, motors and speakers that periodically demand high volumes of electricity. The ebb and flow of power drawn by these devices causes the amount of power running through the rest of your home to veer slightly above and beneath the standard 240 V. Believe it or not, the frequency of these slight surges can gradually wear down the components in your most useful devices.
Consider all the tiny components necessary to keep your desktop computer running: there are circuits that transmit power to motherboards, which store data in tiny electronic cells, with tiny little fans keeping all the other pieces from overheating. Consider also your LED lamp, which relies on the the mass recombination of electrons along a tiny semiconductor chip to release energy in the form of bright colored light photons. The tiny, delicate pieces in both of these devices suffer from the wear and tear of the surges caused by your refrigerator and your roommate’s amplifiers. However, with a good surge protector, you can keep your food cold and the music loud without doing damage to the most important devices in your home office.
For further information on this contact Mark Brown Electrical on 1300 727 798.
