My family is not exactly what you would call a high-tech group of people. It took us a lot longer than our neighbors to get a computer, and we didn't have a basic surge suppression system until we had our first significant data loss. There had been a thunderstorm, and before we could turn off the computer fried the power supply.. Fortunately, did not destroy the hard drive, but did erase several files that I was working on at the time and had been foolish enough not to save. It also cost me que a b of time and productivy lost, as we had to have someone come out and install a new power supply.
Now, three years later, we are shopping for whole house surge protectors. You see, I have been doing some research on surge protection, and this seems to be the best plan for my house. Nowadays, there are three computers in the house. There is the one in the office which I use for my work, my oldest daughter's PC, and an outdated backup one that we keep downstairs for emergencies or when multiple people have to work at the same time. Rather than buy many different surge strips, we figured that a whole house surge protector was the way to go.
Researching whole house surge protectors has proven to be a ltle b more complicated than I had expected. I would have thought would be a straightforward affair, but you really need to know a lot about your own needs to determine what is best. For example, some whole house surge protectors are only good for small houses. For a limed power supply, they can stop surges from happening, but when the power demand goes up they have difficulty regulating power. Other whole house surge protectors are designed for more heavy-duty applications. They tend to be expensive to own and operate, and in need of regular repairs. Even though they are the best whole house surge protectors, they are out of my price range.
The thing that you have to keep in mind when you're shopping for whole house surge protectors is that you are really looking for something to protect you from an extremely unlikely event. You don't need a whole house surge protector that can provide five hours of unlimed power, for example. Get something that will stop a power surge from destroying your computer, give you enough energy to backup your applications and turn off your systems, and then shut off.
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