surge protectors...?

[jmh547]

Recently my work has had some bad hits with spikes melting two plc's. SO... i have been doing some research into surge protectors and line conditioning to find options. After looking at some basic diagrams of how surge protectors work i came to the conclusion that the "MOV" works in parrallel grounding the line that is surging to another line..... With my limited knowledge of how this works and electronics in general... does this mean that if i get a (for example) 1500 joule surge protector and plug it in wouldnt that "protect" my whole house for 1500 joules and not just the items pluged into the protector

[Gnufsh]

I don't think so, but I don't know enough to give a definitive answer. Anyone?

[Kevin007]

Try getting a UPS and it will tell you how bad the power is.

[JimmyG]

You will get some protection for the whole house, but you are better off installing a whole house surge protector in your breaker box. The power spike will be intercepted at the box instead of flowing throughout the house until it gets to the surge protector that you have plugged in. Having said that, you still should put surge protectors on each electronic box to be protected. Surges can occur within the house (e.g. electric motors turning on and off in the furnace, washer, dryer, refrigerator, air conditioner). These surges can be just as deadly as power line surges.

[Overload]

Voltage spikes are transient responses that travels through your house wiring. a normal (cheap) surge protector has MOV's that shunt any voltage above a certain level, usually about 150v. when a voltage spike encouters a MOV it gets shorted to ground, and usually burning up the MOV in the process. the spike doesnt get the equipment on the other side of the MOV. other equipment in you house will NOT be protected as the spike travels down all wiring independently.

A surge protector at the breaker box would protect the whole house from spikes from outside and (i think) from in house spike on differrent circuits but not on the same circuit.

For better protection use a non MOV device like these:
http://brickwall.com/index.htm