RE: [APD] IceCap ballasts hype or not?

[Bill Wichers <billw at waveform_net>]

> Daphne, don't feel too bad about losing things from lighting strikes.  When
> you're talking about a force of nature that has just traveled a couple of
> miles through thin air you begin to realize how futile it can be to protect
> yourself 100% from lighting strikes.  For what it's worth though my old EE
> roommate explained that having 2 surge protectors doesn't increase your
> protection any more than having one.  Something to do with the way that
> surge protectors "clamp" or something. *shrug*

Not exactly. Two protectors can help, since the idea is that when the first 
unit fails the second will still work. They don't give you the ability to 
handle one strike of twice the size though. Surge protectors work by 
effectively shorting the wire to ground and shorting out the surge. Large 
surges heat the protectors up enough to destroy components (I have a nice 
example of this from a lightning strike here).

If you have frequent problems with lightning you should consider a "whole 
house" protector -- and not one of the $20 hardware store units that are no 
different than a plug strip type unit. Polyphaser makes some good ones that 
are about $400. They rely on gas discharge tubes instead of MOVs, and can 
take much larger strikes many more times. Might be worth looking into if 
you've had a lot of lightning problems in the past.

        -Bill


*****************************
Waveform Technology
UNIX Systems Administrator

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