Surge Protector: Any difference?

[DocYahoo]

Some surge protector says it can handle 90 Joules and some says 2120 Joules. What is the difference? I know it's how much electricity it can handle, but what does that mean in terms of wattages? Or how many appliences can I have on it at once?

Thanks.

 

[brewerbob]

Joules is a function of voltage and time...the higher the number the better. (Just using made up numbers) If you had a spike of 140 volts for one second it would equal to say 1000 joules. You could get even higher with a longer time or higher voltage. If you want the actual formula for it, send me a PM and I'll send it to you.

Short and sweet the bigger the better!!

 

[brewerbob]

Chech this thread myurl

 

[nippyjun]

I prefer the ones that have phone line protection as well. Can't be too careful.

 

[jamarno]

A watt is a unit of power, and a joule is a unit of energy equivalent to 1 watt expended for 1 second. A fairly large MOV will be rated 150J, and many surge protectors will have 2-3 wired together and 3 sets of them (hot-ground, neutral-ground, hot-neutral). So I believe the 2120J rating is the sum of the ratings of all the MOVs, and it's more realistic to divide this by 3 because there are 3 sets of MOVs. The joule rating has nothing to do with the amount of power that can be drawn by the appliances because the protective devices just don't do anything during normal conditions. The better surge protectors contain not only MOVs but also capacitors and chokes to block fast-changing voltage and current as well as excess voltage, making them effective even when the voltage of the surge is too low for the MOVs to trigger.

 

[TheOverlord]

they're only good to a point as if you really get a lightning strike then its all gonna be fried...thats why i use the cheap 2 dollar ones just to duplicate the socket...if you want good protection then get a small UPS