I need to get a couple of mains blocks. I can get 4-way Belkin ones with
surge protection (F9H400uk1M) for about £5.50 which is about a quid more
than a normal block costs down the local B&Q.

I'm no electrician, part of me looks at the wave of £30+ surge protectors
out there and thinks they're designed to look pretty and scare people out
of their money, on the other hand I've had enough people bring their home
PCs to me at work because their PCI modem's stopped working after a recent
thunderstorm to think for the sake of a quid more on a mains block I might
as well.

Anyway, looking around the belkin site there's all kinds of joule and
amperage and db ratings and I'm curious what it all means?

I won't be connecting anything out of the ordinary, PC and bits to one, AV
amp/sky/TV/DVD to the other.

It's be nice if any explanations could be "plain english", and not turn
into a "whole house protection" argument as seems to happen on every thread
I've seen on google!

regards
Paul
--
paul at spamcop.net