The thing about lightning that most people are unaware of, is that power
companies now have the ability to dramatically reduce power line damage. If
you will notice, in most cities there is a lightning breakover connection
every few power poles. The dramatic damage of the past has been reduced to
a trickle, UNLESS you are outside of a major city; they can't afford too
many suppressors in that case.

Knowing this, the power strip people are able to find an insurance company
who will gladly insure against actual damage. But they are only going to
honor damage that occurs THRU THE STRIP, see? Lots of houses are struck by
lightning, but few enter thru the mains supply.

Having said that, yes, the MOV's work quite well against minor spikes, and
probably WILL save most damage to the equipment from spikes already
surpressed by the mains grid.


--Bob

At 06:29 PM 7/1/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>I am interested in knowing more about surge supressors.  Now, I know your
>regular surge surpessor strip has a few MOV's, a few capacitors, maybe
>even a pi filter in it.  That's simple.  What I want to know is how they
>can GUARATEE them and stay in business?
>
>THe guarantees that come with these power strips have flashy $5000 or
>$10000 or even $75000 guarantees for equipment hooked up to them.  They
>also say they are not guaranteed agaisnt lightning.  Hmmm.  Does anybody
>know what is left, if you are not guaranteed against lightning?  Is a
>non-lightning surge actually likely to destroy your equipment?  How would
>one of these manufacturers tell if it was a lightning surge or something
>else and decide if they could pay your claimn or not?  Are these
>guarantees worth anything at all?
>
>It would be interesting to talk with someone who actually was in this
>industry.
>
>
>
>-- Lawrence Lile
>Senior Project Engineer
>Toastmaster, Inc.
>Division of Salton, Inc.
>573-446-5661 voice
>573-446-5676 fax
>
>--
>http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
>[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads

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