Get a UPS and make sure you have properly grounded outlets.
"volts500" wrote in message
om...

"Dorot29701" wrote in message
...
I live in FL. Every so often when I get my monthly bill, there is a
notice in
it that I can get "whole house" surge protection. I never bothered with
that
because I had surge protectors for computers, TVs, DVDs etc.

This week we have had three power outages. The weather was fine - at
least
right here - when suddenly there was this off, on, off again, on again
and
then
it stayed off. All very quick. My appliances are okay but my neighbor
lost
his computer - even though he has a surge protector. Last year I lost a
DVD and
VCR during a bad storm...but these recent outages weren't weather
related.

Now I worry about large appliances - don't have anything protecting
them.
How
susceptible are they to surges? Do they have any kind of built in
protection?
Is it cost effective to get this "whole house" surge protection from the
power
company?

Thanks for any help.

Dorothy


Surge protection starts with a properly installed, _effective_ power
grounding electrode system. It's critical that the telephone primary
protector ground and cable TV system ground, or any other system ground
for
that matter, be bonded to an effective electric power grounding system.
If
you have cable TV, since you've already lost a VCR.......I think that you
may find that your cable TV is not properly grounded to the electric
system
ground.

Properly bonding all systems (power, phone, cable TV, etc.) together goes
a
long way towards protection. In fact, manufacturer's usually state in
their
warranties that a properly grounded system must exist for the warranty to
have effect.

I don't know about Florida Power, but TECO will not hook up a service
without lightning protection installed. I don't believe Florida Power has
a
surge protection program per se, but TECO has the "Zap Cap" program. The
whole house surge protector helps protect major appliances.....and that's
part of the warranty. Electronic equipment is required also to have a
point
of use protector by TECO. IMO, the point of use protector will pick up
any
surges that get past the whole house protector and any surges created
inside
the house by other equipment. Here's their webpage:
http://www.zapcap.com/ZCHmHm.html

Before buying surge protection, I recommend to _always_ read the warranty
fine print.........one particular surge protection manufacturer, for
example, reserves the right to have any damaged equipment shipped to
_them_,
at their option. That might be OK for a VCR, but a 200 pound Sony TV
could
be an obstacle and an expense that comes out of _your_ pocket.

An option to the Zap Cap program is to hire an electrical contractor who
knows system grounding/lightning protection to check your grounding
system,
and have them install a whole house protector, then purchase decent point
of
use protectors like Panamax or Triplite. Remember that if a piece of
equipment, such as a computer, which has phone and/or cable connections,
that _those_ systems must _also_ be protected by the point of use
protector.

See TURTLE's post for further protection.

OK, _W_Tom :-)

Surge protection requires earth ground. Safety ground of
those outlets does not provide an earth ground necessary for
effective surge protection. Therefore that plug-in UPS only
protects from power loss - does not protect hardware.

To understand why outlets are not earth ground, one must
first learn the concepts of impedance - not the same as
resistance. Read that UPS specification. It does not even
claim to provide protection from typically destructive
surges. It claims the exact same protection found in power
strip surge protectors.

Wayne's Locks wrote:
Get a UPS and make sure you have properly grounded outlets.