The TechCentrics Where Technology and the Internet Meet

Power to the People

The importance of surge protectors becomes all too real for some users this time of year. With lightning season starting up, storms and power outages start to wreak havoc with computer systems and servers. This danger is exemplified more with rolling brownouts and blackouts due to electricity consumption in the summer months. Properly protecting your PC from this danger could mean the difference between an inconvenient power outage and full-blown system meltdowns.

Power surges caused by lightning strikes are not uncommon. At any given moment, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress somewhere on the earth (NOAA). In the US alone more than 20 million cloud-to-ground flashes are recorded yearly (thecomputerwizard.biz). These numbers should bring the realization that lightning strikes are more common than you may think. The risk does exist, and not protecting your electronics from a lightning induced surge is like playing with, say... fire... another threat to electronics .

You have at least two ways to properly protect your equipment from surges caused by lightning, or power outages/brownouts. The first way to protect your machine is to unplug it before a storm starts. This isn't as useful an approach when dealing with brownouts because they are usually unexpected. Unplugging the power cable from the wall before a storm is a great start, but is not the only cable that should be unplugged. Lightning has the ability to travel through multiple sources into your PC... most notably the modem or Ethernet cables. If you leave your cable/DSL/fiber modem plugged into your computer and your house is struck, there is a high probability that the surge could travel through those wires, and then into your computer. By unplugging all external sources from your machine you minimize the risk of damages.

The second approach would be to use adequate surge strips. The term adequate should be noted, because a $5 surge protector from Walmart will not necessarily protect your electronics as well as a $70 name brand uninterrupted power supply (UPS). A UPS is like a big surge strip which has a battery within it that charges up. That battery provides the electric current, as well as filters the electricity to provide a constant source of current. By providing that steady stream of power to your system (or other devices plugged into it) it minimizes risk of damage to those devices cause by poor power (brownouts) and blackouts. Another good reason to use a UPS is the battery will prevent the computer from suddenly shutting off; resulting is possible data loss or corruption. The 5-30 minutes extra you have to shut down your computer properly can make all the difference (and it is neat to be on the computer while the entire house has experienced a blackout!)

I have already received a call (on 5/4/10) for a computer server that experienced a power surge. The resulting damage was a dead hard drive, which has caused all systems at this client's site to flounder since they relied on that single server to operate. Proper protection from these dangers (as well as a proper backup solution) can help ensure this does not happen to you.
As always, if you have any questions feel free to drop us a comment, or visit twitter.com/RhineTech for the latest buzz and articles!

-Steve Rhinesmith, for The Tech Centrics

NOTE: This is the first article I have written for "The Tech Centrics". I have been asked to participate as a staff writer for this blog and will dual-post relevant articles I author both here and at my Computer Repair Business's Blog. Please visit us at: http://www.rhinetech.com or http://www.twitter.com/rhinetech