Xref: utzoo misc.consumers.house:15970 sci.electronics:16984 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!micor!latour!ecicrl!clewis From: clewis@ecicrl.UUCP (Chris Lewis) Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house,sci.electronics Subject: Re: Improper ground in house wiring? Keywords: ground wire Message-ID: <1118@ecicrl.UUCP> Date: 16 Jan 91 08:44:27 GMT References: <3667@ntmtv.UUCP> <155720@felix.UUCP> Reply-To: clewis@ecicrl.UUCP (Chris Lewis) Followup-To: misc.consumers.house Organization: Elegant Communications Inc., Ottawa, Canada Lines: 76 In article <155720@felix.UUCP> asylvain@felix.UUCP (Alvin "the Chipmunk" Sylvain) writes: >In article <3667@ntmtv.UUCP> adrian@ntmtv.UUCP (Adrian Brandt) writes: >> I just got one of those surge protection/EMI/RFI plugs to >> plug a bunch of home entertainment system stuff into. >> This do-hickey turns a standard dual 3-prong household outlet >> into six surge-protected, EMI/RFI filtered 3-pronged plugs. >> The unit has two LEDs on the top of it. According to the >> very brief description on the package, the red LED indicates >> that surge protection is working and the green LED indicates >> that the unit is properly grounded. >I get a feeling from reading the responses to your post that the little >LED do-hickeys are only there to add "bells and whistles" to the silly >thing. I have a similar device, no LEDs, works fine. I suspect that if >the thing actually got fried from a surge, you wouldn't need to see the >red light is out ... your equipment wouldn't work anymore due to lack of >power! Not necessarily - a spike can easily kill the devices used to short out the spikes with/without damaging the protected equipment, or breaking the electrical path thru the do-hickey. Most surge protectors consist of one or more MOVs (or TransZORBS or the like) connected between one or more pairs of the three wires in an outlet - if zapped, they'll open-circuit, no longer protect, but not damage the wiring from the plug to the socket. Without necessarily showing any damage on the case. Thus, the RED led does have some value. As I mentioned in my response, I figger he doesn't have a real ground on the outlet, so at least part of the surge protection won't work ANYWAYS. >You're probably better off spending just a tad more money getting one >with a built-in circuit breaker. I've come to the conclusion that one with a circuit breaker is a waste of money if you have breakers in your main panel. The main panel breakers are more likely to work in the crunch, more accurate, and are more likely to work more than once. Though, if your panel has fuses, the breaker might just trip a teensy bit faster and save a bit more electronics. Though, if someone can suggest a good reason for having two breakers (panel and outlet), maybe I'll change my mind. Further, remember, that a breaker is NOT going to trip fast enough to prevent damage to electronics from power problems. It's there to trip during *long* (relative) current surges in the connected equipment - which is usually a sign that something is already busted. On a heavy hit (big enough to break something), first: the protectors will die, the electronics will melt, and your breaker will pop if the electronics (or wiring) has failed in a shorted condition. Breaker trip time is awful long compared to most spike durations and the threshold for disturbing or destroying solid state electronics. Fuse trip time is so slow that a dead short between power conductors can sometimes do an amazing amount of damage before the fuse finally blows, and in blowing, if it explodes (which is not that uncommon with dead shorts), the damage can sometimes become considerably worse - melted panels, fires and all. (One I was involved with even started a fire on the pole!). Don't panic - this is usually only with industrial size and current systems. Breakers are better, but sometimes they too don't trip fast enough. >Otherwise, do what somebody suggested >and turn it in for a friendly replacement. If the do-hickeys are >supposed to be on then *they durnedably had better be on!!* True, but he'd be better off buying a 3 LED outlet tester dohickey to find out whether he has a good ground. They're only a few bucks, and he can use it to test his other outlets. -- Chris Lewis, Phone: (613) 832-0541 UUCP: uunet!utai!lsuc!ecicrl!clewis Moderator of the Ferret Mailing List (ferret-request@eci386) Psroff mailing list (psroff-request@eci386)