Protecting your appliance from power surges

[mazdamazda]

How do you properly protect appliances from power surges?

The projector tv & PC at my parent's house got fried last weekend. According to them, the electricity flickered for a second then that's it. :cry:

For the PC, I installed before a surge strip & an AVR - the room has a dedicated breaker. For the TV, it is equipped with a transformer & a dedicated fuse box.

Aside from these, what additional protection can I add the next time around?

For laptops, do I also ground it (for those with a three prong outlet)?

[akuma]

alam ko dati nauso yung mga ref guard at app guard...
di ko lang sure how effective they are...
kailangan ko rin dito yan sa shop... lalo na rainy season na... madalas mag on off ang kuryente...
cguro i need some ups din bukod sa avr ng mg pc ko...

i'll wait na lang sa mga magpopost...

[nicolodeon]

M2, yes ground the laptop. For your ref, get an AVR with more than 1500N rating. A 500N rating AVR won't cut it. Trust me - my laptop got fried a couple of years ago when a strong electrical surge went through my 500N AVR.

If you plan to install an airconditioner, get a separate breaker for it. I installed a separate breaker for my aircon. For electrical appliances that guzzle power (such as my two TVs and ref), I've a separate breaker for all of them (one single breaker). My TVs have surge strips connected to 1500N AVRs. Same goes for my ref. Also, after a power outage, I don't turn the TVs and/or on immediately because there would definitely be a sudden surge in electricity. I usually wait for 10 mins before I open the ref and allow for any of my TVs to be turned on again. For the airconditioner, I wait 15 mins. Some may say this is BS but hey, an extra ounce of protection would not hurt.

Here's a nice article for you: How to Choose Surge Protection for your Home

[BlueBimmer]

bili ng ORIG JAPAN na AVR like STAVOL, 500W nito costs more or less 4k..ito ung mga orig talaga na totoong AVR.

yung mga cheap na 1-1.5k di yan reliable.

pwede rin mga cheap avr with time delay para pag biglang balik ng current di agad papasok sa appliances ang kuryente.

pero i recommend mga STAVOL talaga.

[Syuryuken]

Bili ka ng extension na may surge protector ganyan lang ginagamit ko sa server ko hindi ako naglagay ng AVR kahit dun sa 30 unit na PC ayos naman 5 years ng ganun ang setup. Yung AVR may mga defective din yan pa sumisira pag nagtagal.

[leinahtan]

I have the following Power on Delay for my appliances at home:
Ref - Ref Mate Power on Delay from Euroflex
Aircon - Aircon Mate with Power on Delay and timer with fan socket
TVs - I got these small power on delay adaptor on each unit.
PC - same as above on TVs
Laptop - not grounded but I made it a point not to use it when expecting heavy rains with lightning resulting to power outages.
Iron - Iron Mate. One that shuts the unit's power off when hanged.

[pup2]

Totoo yun. AVR's sometimes not only fail, they sometimes get broken without giving any obvious sign they're broken kaya umiiwas na ako sa AVR's.

Yes, grounding of 3 pronged plugs is good whenever possible pero AFAIK dapat grounded din yung pinagkakabitan.

Dati, a near hit by lightning zapped most of my electronics except yung nakakabit sa grounded surge protector ko -- my LAN card STILL got fried though, possibly by the EM Pulse.

[ghosthunter]

How do you properly protect appliances from power surges?

The projector tv & PC at my parent's house got fried last weekend. According to them, the electricity flickered for a second then that's it. :cry:

For the PC, I installed before a surge strip & an AVR - the room has a dedicated breaker. For the TV, it is equipped with a transformer & a dedicated fuse box.

Aside from these, what additional protection can I add the next time around?

For laptops, do I also ground it (for those with a three prong outlet)?

You can try using a power-on delay... like the one's available for refrigerators and air conditioners. Even some more expensive voltage regulators have this feature.

What kills electrical appliances is the sudden electrical spike when power is suddenly returned. So if you delay the return of electrical supply to the appliance, it should be fine.

[1D4LV]

before i was using a ref guard which delays power to the fridge.
pero two years ago, my ref still got fried.

invested in a TVSS (transient voltage surge supressor) which protects the whole house na. concern ko rin kasi yung computer, yung TV (eh plasma pa...) tsaka yung mga aircons namin.

[BlueBimmer]

thats coz appliances can still be fried even if may power on delay devices..its best to pair these up with genuine heavy duty AVRs, para kahit biglang nagsurge ang current even up to 300V ay protektado pa rin appliance mo AND no appliance interruption.