[olug] One Point Twenty-One Jigawatts

[Eric Penne]

Yes they are one use items.  How to tell if they have been used once is
hard to do.  Black burnt markings? Not necessarily.  Almost all equipment
sold in Europe has to be tested for immunity to line surges as low as 1kV.
 The US doesn't apply this standard.  More than likely the cheap power
strips won't stop anything under 6-10kV surge.  More expensive power
strips will stop 1kV surges.  Some of this energy is just absorbed by
capacitors which heat up if you do this repeatedly.

Utilities usually have a lightning arrestor on the transformer which is
just a rod that is a few inches away from another rod.  The first rod is
directly connected to the incoming power line.  The second rod is
connected to a large wire tied to ground at the bottom of the pole.  They
put protection on this because squirrels fry quickly if they touch both
rods at once. :)  When lightning strikes it has enough energy to jump the
gap and go to ground.  It still creates a surge on the line though (>8kV).
 The farther down the line the smaller the surge.  Close to the strike,
the surge suppressor should trip and you should replace it.  Farther down
the line the equipment can probably handle the surge by itself.

Eric


>
> <quote who="Jesus Cash">
> [snipped]
>>
>> 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.
> [snipped]
>
> When taking some electronics classes at Metro Community College, I swear
> I was told that a surge strip was a one use item. It ties one power hit,
> and then it is no good. Unfortunately, with most surge strips they do
> not indicate that this “one good deal” has happened, and you are now
> vulnerable for that equipment connected to that surge strip. So you
> would be worse off then, thinking you are protected but in reality you
> are not.
>
> True?
>
> --
> A: No.
> Q: Should I include e-mail quotations after my reply?
> =====================================================
> An often repeated quote on news.admin.net-abuse.email:
> <I>
> "Spam is not about content, it is about consent".
> </i>
>
>
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