Bill Cypher on Nostr: How to keep your expensive electronics and node from letting the magic smoke out. ...

How to keep your expensive electronics and node from letting the magic smoke out.

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First of all, surge arrestors are consumable items. Each surge uses them up a little. You need to regularly check the "protected" light on critical surge protectors to make sure it hasn't been used up and stopped protecting you.

Next. There are 3 types of surge suppression you could run in your house. Each type targets a different type of surge, speed of the voltage rise varies from surge to surge. A point of use device like a UPS or power strip is a type 3, it has the lowest clamp voltage but also needs the surges to be less than a certain voltage before it can really protect you. The Isobar line is the best in class here, one in front of your UPS is probably a good idea.

Type 1 and type 2 generally are whole house devices wired or connected directly into your main breaker panel. Those 2 are the devices that will work together to clamp surge voltages to something your type 3 device can manage. The best for you here depends on who made your breaker panel. One of mine is made by Siemens and one by the manufacturer of my panel. Both cost me $300 ish total for parts, I did my own installs.

This is surge only, voltage going high. Voltage going low can also fry electronics. That is why a quality UPS that has AVR (automatic voltage regulation) and working batteries is also important for sensitive electronics. It uses the power stored in the batteries to keep the device voltage high when the house voltage dips.

Check your lights on all devices regularly and make sure your batteries haven't failed. Check the outlets to make sure they are wired correctly. At that point if you still find yourself having problems have additional ground rods added to your home wiring.