All of your home electronics should be equipped with some type of surge protector. It represents the simplest form of surge protection and is a first line of defense for every electrical component in any electronic device. You can start large and install a whole house surge protector but you really need to include personal protection on individual items. I've said that before but I can't say it enough. Whole house surge protectors protect your appliances from external surges but there are many internal forms of power surges that can affect your individual electronics.

That's not to say that surge protectors can't protect you from surges in ac voltage or lightning strikes but the chances are slim to none. The only chance of protection is if the surge was slight which would mean the lightning blast would have to have been at a great distance away. A direct line surge would leave your equipment a smoking mess regardless of the Joules rating. I'll talk about Joules in a moment.

With all that in mind it might seem that it is no easy task choosing the kind of surge protection that is best for each appliance as there are hundreds of surge protectors available. But with a little knowledge which I will provide here you can pick through the masses of units and find what you need with ease.

One thing that confuses a non-technical person is the fact that surge protectors and power strips can look the same. At their simplest a protector has multiple outlets and a three pronged plug. Where people get confused is so does a regular power strip. However, the difference is power strips seldom list a Joules rating. And this is what will save you possibly hundreds of dollars from a simple mistake. Look for a Joules rating. Something above 500 is ideal and sufficient enough to protect small equipment from basic power surges.

Joules is simply the measure of power that can be absorbed by a outlet surge protector.

The basic principle behind the electrical surge protector is to recognize higher than normal voltage current and redirect it away from your equipment while allowing normal current to continue on its path. The excess voltage is converted to heat where it then dissipates into the air on a grounding wire.

Surges last only a few milliseconds but should they last for several it could cause the circuit breaker to trip or blow a fuse, depending on your setup. This can protect your electronics somewhat by stopping the surge from reaching them but in the case of a computer this can still damage circuitry as computers are not supposed to be shut down instantaneously.

Within the protector are several component that interact with each other to suppress the spikes in voltage, the most common of which is the MOV, or metal oxide varistor. A MOV is a simple piece of equipment that is incredibly fast in responding to surges. It creates a short on the line when electrical current exceeds the MOV's resistance point. This is what diverts the excess energy to the neutral ground wire.

The point of resistance on a metal oxide varistor drops from a very high level measured in thousands of ohms to a very low level of ohms. This sudden transition is what causes the short. And when I say sudden I mean just a few nanoseconds which is equal to one-billionth of a second. Sudden. This is 1,000,000 times faster than the time it takes for a circuit breaker to recognize a surge and trip.

But the MOV is not the only component that helps stop a surge. There are gas tube arrestors, avalanche diodes and passive circuitry reactors that use inductors and capacitors to stop surges, none of which can be considered the perfect tool for surge suppression. One mode might be slower than another and one might not have the capacity of another, but when used together they provide superior protection.

Now that you have the basics of how a surge protector works, let's look at what you need to know on choosing the best one: the ratings. These will determine the capacity a home surge protector has and what electronic it is best suited for.

The first thing to consider is peak surge current. This lists the maximum current the protector can absorb in one shot. Unless you have a whole house surge protector installed on your home you are going to want an individual device that can handle a large surge. That means you want the peak surge current to be at least 55,000 amps. The more the merrier though.

Then take a look at the Joules rating. You already know what this is. It might also be listed as the energy rating. Standard Joules range in value from 500 to more than 3000. Of course the higher the rating the better protection you have. For equipment such as computers it's best to use at least something with a Joules rating of 1300. For the math geek, one Joule equals 0.0009481 Btu. So if you know the BTU rating of your equipment you can easily figure out what kind of surge protector is best for your equipment.

The last thing to consider is performance. A suppressor degrades a little with each surge. The downside of this is you can't tell how much it degrades until it is too late. Nor can you tell exactly what factors of a surge cause it to degrade. You only protection from vulnerability is to purchase a surge protector that has a monitoring light on it. These are usually marked in green and red. Green for "everything is fine". Red for "time for a new device".

Here's a vid on a few trusted surge protector sources.