Well I have an Electrical and Electronic background of almost 40 years and I found it difficult too.

A whole house protector could be an RCD.
Circuits, and their Indicator lights, on Surge Protectors are certainly designed to protect equipment and not life.

Even an RCD is designed to reduce the risk to life but not to eliminate the risk. They must not be relied on to do so.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rc...utf-8&oe=utf-8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surge_protector

Well I don't know about you but I sleep with my eyes shut, so LED's blinking or otherwise would not be an issue.

Apart from collecting anonymised data, one of the reasons for the new style of OS settings etc. is that if everyone has a generic experience it is far easier for MS to patch the OS and introduce new features without months of hassle.

Has anybody else spotted a tiny flaw with that analogy?

If a first read was understood, then this stuff was already known. You grasped a few points. Anything this new requires multiple rereads.

Only described is why neither a power strip protector nor UPS does hardware protection. Dangers and damage created by them. Outages do not cause hardware damage. Something completely different (unfortunately also called surge protection) does hardware protection. That exposed urban myths and wild speculation. Now a solution.

Electrical engineers understood and implemented this over 100 years ago so that all surges (ie lightning) cause no damage. All first learned this in primary school science (Ben Franklin). Lightning seeks earth ground. A best path is via something conductive - wooden church steeple. Steeple damaged.

Franklin's lightning rod does not do protection. It connects lightning to earth on a path that is not destructive. Then hundreds of thousands of joules dissipate harmlessly in earth. Earth (not a lightning rod) does protection.

Lightning seeks earth ground. A best path is via something conductive - utility wires and house hold appliances. Appliances damaged.

Protector does not do protection. It connects a surge low impedance (ie less than 3 meters) to earth on a path that is not destructive. Then hundreds of thousands of joules dissipate harmlessly in earth.. Earth ground (not a protector) does protection.

Single point earth ground. Protection is never about some magic box. Protection is about the 'system'. A 'whole house' protector is only one part of that 'system'. But the most critical part is a connection to and quality of earth ground.

Best protection on a TV cable is a hardwire connected low impedance (ie less than 3 meters) from TV cable to single point earth ground. No protector required for best protection.

AC electric cannot connect direct to earth. So a 'whole house' protector makes that connection. A protector is only doing what that hardwire does better. THE only part always found in every hardware protection system: earth ground.

Effective 'whole house' protectors come from companies known for integrity such as AEL Group, Keison, Siemens, ABB, and Eaton. Not listed are Belkin, Tripplite, APC, or Monster.

Any recommendation without numbers is best ignored. Lightning is typically 20,000 amps. So a minimal 'whole house' protector is 50,000 amps. Because effective protectors do not fail even after multiple direct lightning strikes over many decades.

Potentially destructive surges occur maybe once every seven years. Surge damage in the UK is less often. Geology explains damage more often in some venues. Apparently you are located where a properly earthed protector is essential. Even an AC utility may rent and install one.

Protection is always about where hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly dissipate. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.

'Like' or 'dislike' is irrelevant. Above is simple science understood by electrical engineers even over 100 years ago. Virtually unknown to a majority only educated by advertising, hearsay, wild speculation, and no specification numbers. Obviously a 'whole house' solution and an RCD are completely different devices that have completely different functions. An EE would know that.

A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.

This is a UK forum. We mostly live in UK housing with appropriate safety measures for our utility infrastructure and location.

westom only posts 2-3 times a year and it's always about power surges!

That is human safety. It exists in most all first world nations.

Above discusses appliance protection. A completely different topic. And often not found even in first world homes due to many who never learned what was well understood over 100 years ago.

Human protection - RCD. Appliance protection - a properly earthed 'whole house' solution.

I really must dig out my $5 Tin-Hat. Can't be too careful.

If my appliances blow, I'll claim from my Electricty Supplier or under my Home Insurance Policy or visit a local Thrift Shop

Generally it is not a problem here. Most supply is TN-C-S (aka PME Phase Multiple Earthing)

Most people don't log-off and shutdown when a storm is near, whereas in the States they often do.

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When my mother was little, if ever there was a lightning storm my grandmother would open the back door "in case ball lightning came down the chimney".

I don't really understand much of what's being said here about surge protection and wotnot, mostly because westom's posts seem to have been through Google translate once or twice before arriving here, but I think we're all talking at cross purposes.

FWIW the kind of problems I was alluding to were system errors and loss of data caused by improper shutdown due to a power outage or system errors caused by transient voltages or damage to electronic equipment caused by voltage spikes.

By the sounds of it my surge protector wouldn't help much, have I got that right? It doesn't really matter anyway because, as mentioned, I used a laptop which, aside from having its own UPS (the battery), is plugged into the gang socket through a transformer (the brick), which I'm told filters all manner of electrical shoutiness.

It goes without saying that my home is fitted with appropriate electrical safety equipment and I'm not afraid during a lightning storm, even if the power goes out.

To be honest, I'm not even sure what you mean when you talk about telemetry, or if it's the same as what I mean. And I'm baffled by the idea of Cortana running in the background. It makes me wonder what you think Cortana is. You seem rather paranoid, if you don't mind me saying.

A UPS (ie battery) does not do hardware protection. To a surge current, battery is electrically equivalent to a short - a direct connection to electronics. That 'brick' provides same robust protection also in all electronics. If that laptop's brick is sufficient protection, then nobody is suffering hardware damage to any appliance.

Plug-in surge protectors are profit centers; do not even claim to provide effective protection. Surges that can do damage occur maybe once every seven years. Much less often in the UK. However if anything was damaged over many decades, then that locale is the exception.

Best is one properly earthed 'whole house' protector. With all other incoming wires (OTA antenna, TV cable, phone, invisible dog fence) also connected to single point earth ground. It is that simple.

Only an effective protector has a low impedance (ie less than 3 meter) connection to earth ground. Safety ground in a wall receptacle is not earth ground.

He's a bit like the Candyman. He only appears once surge protectors have been mentioned three times in a thread...

To be fair, despite his slightly odd delivery, I think he probably has a point. I'm not convinced the few pence worth of components that can dispose of a few joules of energy in a surge protector are worth having. Any decent PSU would do better.

I have such a trailing socket under my desk. After a few years, I noticed that it had selflessly sacrificed itself to save my computer (protection light extinguished). At this point, you are supposed to buy another. Since cynicism had set in by then, I didn't bother. It's been there for many more years since, offering no protection, and nothing bad has happened. I conclude that my equipment is much more resilient to voltage spikes than it was.

If you want to protect against hefty surges induced by nearby lightning strikes, house protection is probably what you need. A piddly surge protector won't help.

Edit: I'm not sure why I would need protection against invisible dogs. That threat is new to me.

Thank you for the translation.

The invisible dog fence has me puzzled too. FWIW I don't own a dog, invisible or otherwise.

Ah, but how can you be sure?

Good question. I think my cat would have sniffed it out by now. Plus I never feed it. The invisible dog, that is.

We're kinda veering away from Windows 10, so should probably stop?

I'll just say that my house had mains smoke alarms fitted a couple of years ago, and in the process they fitted a modern fuse box with circuit breakers rather than wire fuses, and they also trailed a long earth wire around and connected it to the water pipes.
So I presume the house is as protected as is usual in the UK.

I'll just have to remember to replace the surge socket (8 gang) feeding my business PC.
We had another short power cut this afternoon, but it doesn't appear to have done any damage this time thankfully.

That's just equipotential bonding. Nothing to do with surge protection.


Well, if it brings you peace of mind...

Can I interest you in an invisible dog fence?

Ba-dum bum tsshh...

Have to agree with you on both counts.
Your "facts" are totally new because most appear to exist only in your head.
Your posts require multiple rereads (if anyone can be bothered) because they are unintelligible.
Anyway, you seem to have used up your post quota for 2016, see you in 2017.

Surge protection is always about equipotential and conductivity. Protection is always defined by this question. Where do hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly dissipate? Equipotential and conductivity answer that question.

Unfortunately many have swallowed Kool-Aid promoted by Belkin, Tripplite, APC, and Monster. Then understanding well proven science is harder to learn. Those near zero joule protectors have no earth ground. Denying equipotential protects profit margins and expensive advertising that promoted that junk science.

Where is one plug-in protector spec number that defines effective protection? Denials without numbers also identifies junk science reasoning.

A protector is only as effective as the quality of (that means equipotential) and connection to (that means conductivity) earth ground.

Power outages do not damage hardware. Protector does nothing useful during a power outage or restoration.

I can see why he alienates people...

Where did I call you a fool, an idiot, or an uneducated drag on socieity? Only provided are facts - with numbers. Exposed is a popular urban myth. Some would kill the messenger rather than learn reality.

@westom, is English not your first language? I think what everybody is struggling with is your sentence structure more than anything. I'm not convinced that you're an idiot.