nytimes.com— There are a number of ways to protect a home against electrical surges, which can damage sophisticated electronics in home appliances.
Jul 11, 2008View in Crawl 4
>Tim Carter, founder of askthebuilder.com, a home improvement Web site, said that most suppressors contain a metal oxide varistor that absorbs the surge. Its ability to block a surge is rated in terms of joules; the higher the rating, the more it can handle.<Count on the NYT to get information from an "expert" that does not even know how an MOV works. They do not "absorb" surges. At a breakdown voltage they become very low resistance and shunt the surge current to the ground wire. The surge doesn't disappear. It is just moved elsewhere.
"They have no sacrificial components. They will typically take hits of 6000V, 3000A while clamping overvoltage to 2V (must clamp to less than 330V to protect switching power supplies), several thousand times."but, you still have to replace them eventually? dang....
mynameistuxJul 12, 2008
I get it, like those cats right?
mtheoryxJul 12, 2008
We never had actual "textbooks" in our sex ed classes back when I was in school. Is this something new?
kdorJul 12, 2008
>Tim Carter, founder of askthebuilder.com, a home improvement Web site, said that most suppressors contain a metal oxide varistor that absorbs the surge. Its ability to block a surge is rated in terms of joules; the higher the rating, the more it can handle.<Count on the NYT to get information from an "expert" that does not even know how an MOV works. They do not "absorb" surges. At a breakdown voltage they become very low resistance and shunt the surge current to the ground wire. The surge doesn't disappear. It is just moved elsewhere.
fergyJul 13, 2008
Did you really think it was worth mentioning that you are dyslectic?
caseycooldJul 14, 2008
My $80 UPS will cover $50,000...Only thing that bugs me about UPSs is after 2 years the batteries are useless. Brownouts kill HDDs.
caseycooldJul 14, 2008
"They have no sacrificial components. They will typically take hits of 6000V, 3000A while clamping overvoltage to 2V (must clamp to less than 330V to protect switching power supplies), several thousand times."but, you still have to replace them eventually? dang....