Everybody in the market of electrical protection or every homeowner knows a thing about surge protectors. Surge protectors are great in safety, price, effectiveness, and benefit. Every smart person knows that it is cheaper to buy a whole-house surge protector than to buy all appliances.
Since many people don’t know well about the functionalities and technicalities of surge protectors, here is our guide. It is impossible to answer the number of queries you people send us. These are general FAQs about surge protectors. We filtered out some frequently asked questions and tried to answer them below.
Here is our first question.
Can you plug a surge protector into another surge protector?
Many users asked this question out of curiosity. They might think that plugging a surge protector into another surge protector increases the level of protection for their connected devices.
That’s not the right thing. You should NEVER plug a surge protector into another surge protector. This will create an enormous amount of electrical problems for you.
When you plug one same device into another one, this will create a hazardous electric imbalance in your circuit. This will eventually turn into fire. Connecting this daisy chain of a surge protector to the wall circuit causes the overloading of electric charges in it. As a result of blowing off one or both devices.
These protection devices are not designed to be connected to each other. Surge protection devices are non-directional devices. Many people don’t know that there is a right way to use these devices.
According to a publication by the U.S. Office of Compliance, nearly 20% of all failures and fires stemming from surge suppressors happen as a result of daisy chains.
Interconnecting two surge protectors and feeding them with a single source of electricity burden the units of the circuit. More electric current will flow through the device than the safe limit, causing fire or tripping of the circuit breaker.
There are engineers and electric experts online that will tell you that you can safely plug surge protectors together (Daisy-chaining). Technically, it is possible but you need to be strong at maths. You need to place a power order accordingly. The reality is, most people are not good at maths. Even the smartest people make mistakes.
An important thing to note is that you may be violating electrical or fire codes that make you responsible for any accidents that happen because of daisy-chaining.
The reality is that the misuse of power strips and surge protectors causes 3000 home fires, 50 deaths, and 250 injuries in the U.S alone.
Here is the second FAQ.
Another Question answered: How to prevent Power Surge damage
How many joules should a surge protector have for a computer?
Joules are the measurement of energy. For instance, 1000 Joules is like leaving a 1000 Watt iron on for a second. A surge protector of 2000 joule ratings will absorb the surges up to 2000 Joules.
If you have a sensitive device, then you should get a surge protector of High Joule Rating and Low Clamping Voltage.
Consider the following guidelines.
- The job of a surge protector is not only to protect the connected device but also to protect itself from surges. The joule rating is how much electric energy it can withstand. Once more electric charges pass through the surge protector than the joule rating, it will not protect anything. Always buy a surge protector with a large frame of joule rating.
- The joule rating is the half-protection story. The other rating is Clamping Voltage. It is the minimum voltage at which the protection begins. A lower clamping voltage indicates better protection. There are three levels of protection: 330 volts, 400 volts, and 500 volts. In general, a clamping voltage of more than 400 volts is too high to be useful.
In brief, choose a surge protector with 3000 Joule ratings and a clamping voltage of 330 volts or less.
For a computer, a surge protector of 2000 joule ratings and 330 volts of clamping voltage is recommended. It will also go with all similar electronic devices.
Protection for power tools in homes and offices can be provided with a surge protector of 1000-2000 joules. The highest joules ratings are of home theater, gaming consoles, and PCs.
If you want to know if a surge protector can protect your gaming pc
For the third FAQ, we have,
How does a surge protector work?
Many people know surge protectors by their name but not by their function. Don’t worry, surgeprotections.com got you.
Surge protectors are plugs of electricity with a long wire that connects with the power supply. Their new thing is that they protect your devices from all sorts of electric surpluses (surges).
A surge protector gives the electrical current along with the opening to a number of the devices plugged into it. If the electric charge rises above the acceptable level, it will divert the excess electric charge into the ground level. The grounding wire runs along the neutral and live wire. They provide the space of excess current into the ground
A typical surge protector gives you two benefits. The first one is to give you some more options to plug in your devices. The second and more important benefit is that it gives your devices a premium level of protection. It’s both a win-win situation.
Some questions here that don’t surge protector overkill? No, surge protector can’t handle 100 percent of surges. A small amount of excess voltages leaks through it. About 15 percent of it. They suppress surges that come from the utility company or transformer issue but can’t handle the myriads of surges happening within your house.
Last but not least. Our fourth query is below.
Why does my surge protector keep turning off?
This is the major problem when a person new to surge protector buys a surge protector. Their surges protector or power strip continuously trip off.
There is a brief answer to it.
Below are some reasons that the surge protectors keep turning off.
- Overload: Surge protectors have limited electric capacity acceptance that they can manage. Unlike your home that has limited power outlets and unlimited electricity. Surge protectors aren’t limitless. When your surge protector overloads it starts stripping off.
- Under Voltage: Your surge protector also starts turning off when your supply is under power. It is quite a hassle itself. Undervoltage can also shut off the surge protector. This happens when you use several appliances that use electricity.
- Surge protector malfunction: This might not be a serious problem but can cause your surge protector to turn off. Its only solution is to claim the replacement warranty of your device.
- Power Trip Timing: Not all surge protectors have power trip timing but some do. Due to this, you can set the timing of your protection device to turn off. This is beneficial when you want to turn off your appliances when you are away.
- Heavy Duty Appliance Usability: Using heavy-duty appliances like an air conditioner on a typical surge protector will cause your device to trip several times. The devices whose compatibility is above the acceptance of surge protector will strip off.
- Power Surges: Lastly, a sudden increase in electricity can also cause your surge protector to turn off repeatedly. However, surges are not common. They happen when there are flashes of lightning or transformer issues.
With that, our series of frequently asked questions was put to an end. You can contact us in case of any other queries by commenting below.
Conclusion:
SURGE protectors are a worthy investment as we talked this before. There are slight problems some might face but the good thing is that they can be the cure.
Every house owner should get a whole house surge protector and every industrialist should own a three-phase surge protector.