Re: belkin power conditioner for my Samsung LCD - is it worth it???

The word "direct" must be understood in context. For example, a
direct lightning strike to wires down the street (a direct electrical
connection between cloud and that utility wire) is also a direct
conneciton to household appliances. That current seeks earth ground.
One good path may be via a household appliance by overwhelming
protection already inside the appliance.

Cable is connected directly to earth ground. A $2 ground block even
sold in Lowes or any hardware store connects that cable shield to
earth ground. But to make that connection direct (from lightning's
perspective) means that wire must be short (less than 3 meters), no
sharp bends, no splices, not inside metallic conduit, and separated
from other ungrounding wires. IOW a wire must be more conductive so
that a surge will not seek other destructive paths inside a building.
Violating those other requirements means the connection is not so
'direct'. A cable grounded to a water faucet really is not a direct
earthing connection - too much impedance - not a sufficiently
conductive connection.

Electrical nature of coax means its center conductor need not
connect to earth. End of that wire (inside amps) further makes any
voltage difference irrelevant. Earthed shield of a coax effectively
means center conductor is also earthed - in most situations.

Telephone wires cannot connect directly to earth. So we earth both
wires via a 'whole house' protector installed free by the telco. But
again, to be earthed means that 'less than 3 meter' connection.
Earthing via an AC receptacle - is not earthing for obvious electrical
reasons.

Residential AC electric service is three wires. One wire connects
directly to earth groud as required by code. Other two need a
protector to make that connection. Connecting (to shunt, divert,
clamp, conduct) those other two wires to earth means a protector. So
we install a 'whole house' protector as sold by responsible
manufacturers - with a dedicated earthing wire. Without that earthing
wire, what does the protector do? Simply connects a surge from one
wire to all others - a surge still looking for earth ground - a
problem demonstrated on Page 42 Figure 8.

How are destructive surges generated inside a building? Protection
inside appliances routinely makes those surges irrelevant. Are we
trooping every day to hardware stores to replace dimmer switches,
furnace controls, clock radios, and dishwashers? Of course not. But
they have no protectors - therefore must be damaged every day?
Internal appliance protection was routine AND even defined by industry
standards over 30 years ago. If household appliances create surges,
then that appliance is first destroying itself. If household
appliances create surges, then protection must be inside that surge
generating appliance. And finally a 'whole house' protector is so
robust as to also make those appliance generated surges irrelevant.
Maybe five in an even longer list of reasons why household surges only
exist where myth purveyors are mistaken as informed.

Induced surges from nearby lightning? Put numbers to it. Lightning
can induce thousands of volts on open ended wires AND long wire
antennas. How do we make such induced surges irrelevant? Even an
NE-2 neon glow lamp will conduct millamps from that long wire antenna.
Thousands of volts drops to near zero when conducted by that neon
lamp.. Even protection inside appliances easily makes such induced
surges irrelevant. We install protectioni from direct lightning
strikes. That same protection and protection already inside
appliances makes less surges irrelevant.

Finally, primary protection is not a 'whole house' protector. Each
protection layer is defined by one component: the earthing
electrode. Primary protection should be inspected:
http://www.tvtower.com/fpl.html

Secondary protection is defined by building earthing and connection
(protector) to that earthing. How does a plug-in protector then
protect what those other layers did not? Remember what a protector
does:
http://www.nemasurge.com/help.html
Ideally, protection should be installed at the main service entrance
as close to the N-G (neutral-to-ground) bond as possible. This will
ensure that surge energies are routed to earth by the most direct
path.

Or from NIST Page 17:
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/practiceguides/surgesfnl.pdf
A very important point to keep in mind is that your
surge protector will work by diverting the surges to
ground. The best surge protection in the world can
be useless if grounding is not done properly.

So where is this layered protection without earthing? It does not
exist - except in myths where a 'magic box' is somehow considered
protection.

Supplementary protector is not another shunt mode (plug-in)
protector. Supplementary protector would be a series mode - such as
filters from Brickwall, Surgex, or Zerosurge. Such solutions cost in
excess of $100. Whereas shunt mode protectors work by connecting
(clamping, diverting) to earth ground, series mode protectors blocking
surge currents. Not blocking like a dam. Typically destructive
surges are not stopped or absorbed - would blow through that dam.
Series mode protectors block by operating like a dike - divert the
flood downstream - as part of a larger 'system' that diverts so that
surges cause no damage.

Piggy's cable guy is correct about the $90 belkin for too many
reasons. First it is a shunt mode protector that has no dedicated
earthing; cannot shunt How then can it supplement protection?
Second, it would only degrade cable signals. Third, anything that
protector would do for cable coax conductors is already accomplished
by earthing where cable enters the building - that all so critical
single point earth ground.

On Aug 19, 10:55 am, phil-news-nos...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
...
What do you mean by "direct earthing"? Is that by connecting each wire
to an earth electrode? Or is that by running each wire uninsulated in
the ground?

Cable needs no protector as the cable guy told Piggy. Cable is
earthed directly. Will a 'whole house' protector on phone line

This is one reason a clear definition of what you mean by "direct"
is needed.
...

Services like cable and telephone have 2 or more wires. Let's look
at cable. The coax is actually 2 wires. Directly connecting one of
them to ground makes sense. That would be the shield wire. But then
what of the other wire? If you also connect that one directly to ground
then you lose the signal you want. You need some kind of device that
will not be a low impedance path to ground for the signal, but will be
a low impedance path to ground for the surge.

This is even more important for power. Try directly grounding every
power wire and you'll see what I mean (if you aren't blinded or killed
by the attempt).
...

This protects from surges arriving on the wires coming into the
structure. But what about the surges that take place inside the
structure itself? Lightning can strike nearby and induce surges on
the wiring in the structure (especially that in exterior walls) or
directly strike the structure and spill over into direct contact
with wiring inside.
...

I would recommend not using such a thing as exclusive or primary protection.
It can, however, provide supplementary protection. And surge protectors
for telephone and cable can use the power ground wire for diversion, so they
are not strictly differential mode protection.

.

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