Originally Posted by bluadept
According to my hubbie the surge protectors are rated by how much power that is coming in that it would protect against. So if you are in a place that gets alot of power surges and brown out or lighting storms, you would want a higher rated protector.
Now view its number. UPS has many hundreds of joules. A power strip might be a thousand joules. Surges that do damage are hundreds of thousands of joules. IOW near zero. And just enough above zero so that advertising can hype it into 100% protection.
That is a problem with 'hearing' what works. Low voltage harms no electronics. An electronic sewing machine will work fine even when lights dim to 50% intensity. Low voltage is harmful to motorized appliances - refrigerator, dish washer, and furnace. Not to electronic appliances.
If protecting from low voltage, then a UPS is required for the washing machine and air conditioner. Myths about low voltage promote a UPS that also has near zero protection. Protection inside a UPS is even samller than that in power strips.
How do hundreds of joules protect from surges that are hundreds of thousands of joules. A surge too small to damage anything may easily damage a protector. Failure promotes sales. Then a homeowner will assume the protector is a one shot device. Nonsense. If grossly undersized, a protector fails during irrelevant surges. Near zero joules promotes assumptions also called myths.
Unplugging is also ineffective. Destructive surges occur without warning. Means everything else must also be unplugged including a stove. Surges are made irrelevant by one 'whole house' protector. Only a ‘whole house’ protector earths destructive surges, remains functional, and makes unplugging clock radios unnecessary.
This simply repeats what was read in those previous posts. Informed homeowners earth one 'whole house' protector. Waste no money on mythical power strip protectors. And learn why a UPS outputs some of the 'dirtiest' electricity.