[olug] One Point Twenty-One Jigawatts

Eric Penne epenne at olug.org
Tue May 13 16:29:56 UTC 2003


UL certification is not mandatory.  It is marketing.



> I've had one bad run-in with lightning and an improperly grounded surge
> protector. So no matter how lazy or cheap you are DO NOT use a two prong
>  adapter. Turn it into a grounded socket or have some one else do it,
> just do it.
>
> Also, on the cheaper surge protectors; I had one really cheap one and
> one day I head some crackling and popping. I traced it to the surge
> protector. Through the thin plastic bottom I could see a nice light show
>  going on. Arcs from terminal to terminal and black marks on the
> plastic.  Shut everything down right away and replaced it. I opened the
> surge  protector up and saw bare terminals and nothing much else but a
> small  circuit breaker. After looking the thing over, I notice there was
> no UL  seal. I didn't buy it, in fact I have no idea where it came from.
> I  didn't even think that things like that could be sold in the US with
> out  the UL seal.
>
> Joe Catanzaro wrote:
>
>> I didn't grow up in a place that has lots of lightning like the
>> Mid-west, so I have several questions regarding best practices for
>> lightning and computers. Just like many of you, I have about 6
>> computers running 24/7 and would like to prevent the loss of data and
>> fried hardware as much as possible. And bear with me here, I'm not
>> very smart when it comes to lightning strikes.
>>
>> When a storm rolls in, do you turn off the computer? Rely on a cheap
>> surge protector? Rely on an expensive surge protector? Unplug
>> everything?
>>
>> How does the lightning get to my computer? Does it strike the power
>> pole in the back ally and then travel through the circuits in my
>> house? Or does it hit my house directly?
>>
>> Are lightning strikes common and is it worth getting that OPPD "whole
>> house surge protection?"
>>
>> I grew up in Hawaii and the last thing we were concerned with was a
>> bolt of lightning.
>>
>>
>>
>> Joe Catanzaro
>> joecatanzaro at cox.net
>>
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>
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