![]() Look for: A clamping voltage of 330 volts of less built-in thermal fuses. Surge Station What it does: Protects phone lines and coaxial cable, in addition to plug-in devices. But a lightning strike has to be less than a mile from the house to cause harm, and in fact, most surge-related damage is not caused by lightning. Lightning-induced surges are the most powerful and most feared: A 200,000-amp jolt crashing through a power line will burn standard 20-amp wiring like a lightbulb filament. What Causes Power Surges ?Ī power surge may last for only a few millionths of a second, but at its worst, it carries tens of thousands of volts, enough to fry circuit boards, crash hard drives, and ruin home-entertainment systems. And third, as the owners in the Acton remodel discovered, delicate electronic circuitry has proliferated throughout our homes, leaving common appliances as vulnerable as computers to the effects of surges. Second, a surge will follow any wire into a house-phone and cable lines included-and threaten fax and answering machines, televisions, satellite systems, computers, and modems. ![]() Unfortunately, that’s seldom the case.įirst of all, not all surge protectors live up to their name some are little more than glorified extension cords. Many homeowners believe that adequate surge protection begins and ends with plugging their computer into a power strip. ![]() “It burned out the motherboard in the Sub-Zero refrigerator, fried the temperature controls in the double-wall oven, killed six dimmers, two computers, and every GFCI plug in the house,” Gallant says. Look for: Switches for each outlet space between outlets for three-pronged plugs and transformers indicator lights to show if unit has worn out clamping voltage of 400 volts or less. Power Strip What it does: Provides basic protection for multiple devices.
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