"3. I want to install surge protection not only on the incoming power
line (which the APC 2200 should take care of), but also on the "dish"
cable. "

A UPS is a poor substitute for proper surge protection, which should be
located at the service panel and have a very short path to a single
point earth ground. There it will be effective because of the short
ground and will also protect all the electrical eqpt in the house.
A secondary surge protection located near the equipment it's intended
to protect can serve as secondary protection or for situations where
whole house protection is not possible, eg a rental apartment. But it
will never be as effective because it relies on the house wiring to get
to an earth ground. And the impedance present between whatever place
it's connected in the house and the earth ground will be enough to
greatly diminish it's effectiveness. Plus, if something does take a
hit, I'd rather replace a $100 surge protector at the panel than a
$1000 UPS.

Unless you live in an area with frequent power problems, like short
outages, or brownouts, or have some mission critical computer
applications, IMO, a UPS is waste of money. And I think a UPS is
pretty usless for any type of TV, which only needs surge protection.

As far as installing lightening rods, if you want to do that, I would
only have that done by a professional. For it to be effective, you
need to have it done right. Plus an incorrect install could be worse
than having none at all.

wrote:
"3. I want to install surge protection not only on the incoming power
line (which the APC 2200 should take care of), but also on the "dish"
cable. "

A UPS is a poor substitute for proper surge protection, which should
be located at the service panel and have a very short path to a single
point earth ground. There it will be effective because of the short
ground and will also protect all the electrical eqpt in the house.
A secondary surge protection located near the equipment it's intended
to protect can serve as secondary protection or for situations where
whole house protection is not possible, eg a rental apartment.

AND for protection from surges generated within the home.

But
it will never be as effective because it relies on the house wiring
to get to an earth ground. And the impedance present between
whatever place it's connected in the house and the earth ground will
be enough to greatly diminish it's effectiveness. Plus, if something
does take a hit, I'd rather replace a $100 surge protector at the
panel than a $1000 UPS.

Unless you live in an area with frequent power problems, like short
outages, or brownouts, or have some mission critical computer
applications, IMO, a UPS is waste of money. And I think a UPS is
pretty usless for any type of TV, which only needs surge protection.

As far as installing lightening rods, if you want to do that, I would
only have that done by a professional. For it to be effective, you
need to have it done right. Plus an incorrect install could be worse
than having none at all.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

Details on effective protection solutions recently were
provided in the alt.windows-me newsgroup on 18 Dec 2005
entitled "Dead Computer :-)" also at:
http://tinyurl.com/99ho2

Ignoramus10397 wrote:
...
Thanks. I would like to read a little bit about what it entails, so
that I make right choices when talking to those professionals.

Damage is about a complete electrical path. Some things are
in that path created by lightning and might be damaged Others
are not.

Why a single point ground? Learn why cows, for example, are
killed by a tree strike. Lightning did not hit the cow. Why
did the cow die? Because electricity also flowed through the
cow. Shortest electrical path was from cloud, to tree, into
earth, up cow's hind leg, down cow's fore leg, then on to
earthborne charges located maybe miles away.

So what in your house would have been in that same
electrical path? Apparently the AC controller was in a
destructive path. Maybe incoming up from earth - then
outgoing via breaker box earth ground. Other electronics were
not in a complete circuit - therefore not damaged.

How do we protect a cow? Surround a cow with a buried earth
ground - a halo ground. Cow is standing on equipotential
earth. How to protect your AC controller? Same. Another
example of why we demand single point ground. Is your case, a
halo ground - part of the single point earthing system -
would make earth beneath that AC controller equipotential.

BTW, if we built homes to protect transistors, then Ufer
grounds would be standard. Unfortunately, protection is still
an after thought - which is why APC sells protectors at tens
of times more money per protected appliance.

This also explains why buildings with utilities connected to
different earth grounds may suffer damage.

There is no magic force that caused damage. Smoke detectors
and GFCIs - not on APC protectors - also were not damaged.
What protected them? Same thing that protected other
electronics. APC hopes you never learn this.

Your question only listed selective examples. Good science
includes the entire list of damaged and undamaged
transistors. That APC solution provided no effective
protection. Why? Electronics already have effective internal
protection. Protection that may be overwhelmed without a
'building wide' protection system involving 'whole house'
protector and the most critical protection component - single
point earth ground.

This concept is was explained in that other discussion. APC
did what they could so that you never learn about earthing.

Ignoramus10397 wrote:
Very interesting, I am reading it.

I must note: when a lightning hit the tree next to our house, all out
computers and all electronics were on UPSes. None was hurt. The board
in the AC controller, though, did get fried.

Ignoramus10397 wrote:
On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:51:46 -0500, w_tom wrote:
Details on effective protection solutions recently were
provided in the alt.windows-me newsgroup on 18 Dec 2005
entitled "Dead Computer :-)" also at:
http://tinyurl.com/99ho2

Very interesting, I am reading it.

I must note: when a lightning hit the tree next to our house, all out
computers and all electronics were on UPSes. None was hurt. The board
in the AC controller, though, did get fried.

Lightning is a funny thing from the standpoint of what it will damage
and not. I had a lightning strike three feet from the A/C condensing unit
and it blew out one circuit board in the A/C, noting else in the home was
damaged. That included a number of electronic devices that are sensitive to
surges. That was before I had whole house protection. It did trip the
Circuit breaker for the A/C

I only had one UPS and two computers at the time, the one without the
UPS was the only one turned on.

I suggest that you likely would not have suffered any damage, even
without the UPS. I might also point out that it is very unlikely all your
electronics were on UPS. Do you have a microwave, or digital clocks, etc?


i

Ignoramus10397 wrote:
...
Thanks. I would like to read a little bit about what it entails, so
that I make right choices when talking to those professionals.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit