Berkeys / Berkeys Blog

December 30, 2016

Surge Protector for Dallas Homeowners

Lightning from storms do cause electrical surges, but not as often as you think. But when they do happen, most surge protectors will not be able to handle the extreme voltages that lightning produces and will fail to protect your devices.

Do You Need a Surge Protector?

How Surge Protectors Work

Before we can define how a surge protector works, we need to define an electrical surge. Think of the flow of electricity as the flow of water running through a pipe. Water moves from one end of a pipe to the other end due to water pressure – water moves from high pressure to low pressure. Electricity operates similarly, moving from areas of high electric potential energy to areas of low electric potential energy. In this case, it’s from one end of a wire to the other end.

Voltage is a measure of this electric potential energy – more specifically, the difference in electric potential energy. When the voltage increases above the norm for at least 3 nanoseconds, it’s called a surge. If the surge is high enough, it can cause wear and tear on your electronic devices, or in severe cases even destroy them.

Let’s go back to the water pipe example. If the water pressure within the pipe is too great, the pipe will burst. The same thing is true for electrical wiring. If the voltage of the wire is too great – meaning the difference in electric potential energy from one end to the other is too high – then the electricity will surge through. This heats up the wire, and if hot enough it can burn, rendering it useless.

The surge protector, then, has one job: detect excess voltage and divert the extra electricity into the grounding wire. This is why all surge protectors will have a grounding pin (the third prong on a plug) and all surge protectors must be plugged into a properly grounded outlet for them to work as intended.

When to Use a Surge Protector

So what causes an electrical surge? Most people think that the main culprit of electrical surging is lightning, but that’s not true at all. Yes, lightning can and does cause electrical surges, but the voltage of lightning is so great that most surge protectors won’t be able to withstand their power. During a lightning storm, the only way to be sure that your devices won’t be surged is to unplug them.

Think of it this way: if there was an electrical surge that destroyed all the devices connected to your outlets, which lost devices would pain you the most? Plug those into a surge protector. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

On an offbeat note, surge protectors can be useful for reducing cable clutter and improving the organization of your electronics. All the cables end up being directed to the same destination, making it much easier for you to handle them all neatly.

Tips About Whole House Surge Protector

Remember, a whole house protector will not be able to protect from surges that occur within the house unless it reaches the main electrical board. So that’s why you need to have surge protection at all points in your house to truly protect your equipment.