4 Types of Surge Protectors Explained

While you may not think about them very often, surge protectors are at work right now, protecting your electrical appliances from power surges. Although power surges are rare, they can be incredibly destructive to the appliances in your home. Luckily, there are a great many ways to protect your property from these rare events. When making plans to prevent problems caused by power surges, there are many options for you to choose from. The different types of surge protectors available may seem overwhelming. However, choosing a surge protector does not have to be a difficult process. What follows should explain the basic types of surge protectors that are available.

Primary Type Surge Protectors

When you consider surge protectors, you generally think about small attachments that you can plug into your electrical outlets, designed with outlets of their own to plug appliances into. While these types of surge protectors are more visible, most of the actual protection from electrical surges is done by primary surge protectors.

Primary surge protectors are an important type of surge protector that is installed where power lines enter the building. These devices are extremely important, as they can protect a building's inner wiring from power surges, as well as appliances on the inside.

Primary surge protectors can be quite large, as they do not have to fit inside a room in a building and share it with furniture, appliances, and floor space. This means that they can be quite powerful. In addition to this advantage, primary surge protectors can use the internal ground wires of a building to increase their effectiveness.

Secondary Type Surge Protectors

Secondary types surge protectors are probably what springs to mind when you imagine a surge protector. They are small, and designed to be plugged into electrical outlets. Secondary type surge protectors are less powerful than primary surge protectors, but also more convenient, portable, and easy to use.

Power Strips

Power strips are a type of secondary surge protector. A power strip can be plugged into any electrical outlet. What makes power strips unique is the fact that they come with multiple outlets that multiple appliances can plug into.

Power strips will cut power if there is an electrical surge. This is their most useful feature in terms of protecting your appliances from damage.

Uninterrupted Power Supply Surge Protectors

Uninterrupted power supply surge protectors are also a kind of secondary surge protector. This type of surge protector can come in many varieties and styles. They can even be power strips, but are just as likely to be a different type, such as one with only one outlet. Nonetheless, all of them have one thing in common. Uninterrupted power supply surge protectors contain a battery. This may not seem like very much, but it can be quite important. When a power surge happens, a surge protector will cut off power. This leaves your appliances unpowered - or it would if your surge protector's battery did not come in to pick up the slack.

For this reason, having an uninterrupted power supply surge protector to use with your computer, or any other appliance that can be damaged by a sudden loss of power, is a good idea.