Surge protection advice.

elsmandino

Hello,

I currently use a power strip with surge protection for my desktop computer and all its peripherals and also my main TV and amplifier.

I do not want to get overly paranoid, but there are loads of other electronics in my house that are not surge protected. However far is everyone going with this?

Are there electronic devices that definitely should or should not be protected?

I have a washing machine, fridge freezer, a laptop, various lamps, various flatscreen TVs, hoover, hairdryer, tumbledryer all unprotected - what about mobile phone chargers?

Which should I be protecting and how? Power strips are a bit ugly and I don't think you can buy electrical outlets that actually have built in surge protection.

My remaining options are to use a combination of single or block outlets with surger protection - i.e. those ones that fit straight into the outlet with no wires.


One other quick question - my fridge is in a part of my kitchen that did not have a power socket. I got round this buy buying a 3-way junction box, connected this to some cabling and a plug and then plugged this my outlet on the other side of the room (I then ran the cabling round the top of my kitchen).

My question is this - if I put a single surger protectior in between the outlet and the extention plug, would all three outlets of the junciton box be protected? Or is it preferable to but the surge protector between the junction box and the fridge plug?

Sorry, if that is not completely clear - let me know if not.

Thanks very much.

muckybutt

From a sparkys point of view you are going wayyyy to far, theres really no need to protect anything as the majority of electrical supplys nowadays are very "smooth" shall we say, that is there are less harmful surges and spikes. If you were in the sticks then I would suggest protecting things like tv, dvd, computer maybe router thats all, there is no need to protect washing machines and fridges.

I'm hoping by your description of your fridge electrics you have merely put it on a plug in extension lead, if you have wired it directly into a socket then you have contraveined building regulations as kitchens come under part p for which you will need certification from a part p sparky or will have had to get it signed off by the council.

MX5huggy

I have no surge protection, never had and never had any trouble.

spadoosh

I have one electric surge protection, this is my consumer unit. If this failed, i would contact my insurance company to recover the costs.

The only time i would consider any form of surge protection is if i was using a power tool/strimmer etc outside my property.

I think you were being overly paranoid after "Hello,"

muckybutt

spadoosh wrote: »

I have one electric surge protection, this is my consumer unit. If this failed, i would contact my insurance company to recover the costs.

The only time i would consider any form of surge protection is if i was using a power tool/strimmer etc outside my property.

I think you were being overly paranoid after "Hello,"

Think you are getting confused, you are mixing up electronic surge protection with residual current devices which trip out if there is a fault.

fluffpot

If you are at all worried an electrician could fit a SPD (surge protection device) in or just before your fuse board. However, I've also been told that BT and AV cables also pose a risk (they are connected to your TV/digi box etc) and to be fully covered you'd need a SPD for each of these too.

However, generally in a domestic situation, the risk is pretty small