LOL Wader, You have those DMEs running.
I think guest may be an evil one.
Energise,
Ionizer
Surge Protecctors and CPAPS
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Bullwinkle
- Posts: 37
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 9:39 pm
- Location: Dallas, Texas
Sorry for this, I must be Obsessive Compulsive, I gotta chime in here. It's mostly a curse, haven't found a blessing in it yet.
Yes, the surge protector will help even with a two-prong plug. People get yellow instead of green on their protectors with a two prong instead of a three simply because the unit is telling you that if you have plugged in a three-prong, something is wrong.
A good surge protector puts a gas-discharge diode (or equally rapid discharge solid-state diode) between each leg of the AC power feed and the ground lead. An even better unit will put a rapid-discharge diode in-line with the ground lead as well. If lightning strikes a few doors down the block (or even a block or two over), the electrical discharge spreads out over the earth's surface sped along by the fact that the ground is usually saturated with water from that Texas thunderstorm. This surge actually comes up the ground plane into your house via that copper rod driven into the ground out by where power enters. This is how houses up to half a mile away from a lightning strike can still lose electrical appliances, motors, etc.
So, for this type of a discharge, the double-insulated CPAP machine which doesn't need a ground lead is actually better off than a grounded PC power supply which will fry unless that surge protection disconnects the electrical ground from the earth ground when that spike enters the house.
Now, the $10 Wal-Mart surge protector will actually only have one rapid-discharge diode connecting the "hot" lead (black one) to ground. They won't even protect the neutral lead (white one). These are basically useless, IMHO, unless the power feed to your house takes a direct hit. I, for one, have underground utility feed so this is not too much of a concern. So, go for the Belkin at a minimum; the Monster or Panamax is better still. The difference between the better and best is the speed at which the diode will discharge and break the connection in event of a surge. You need pico-second response times to be fully protected.
Or, you can give your favorite electrician about $350 ($200 for the unit, $150 for installation) and put in a Leviton whole-house surge protector right next to the breaker box. This unit mounts in the wall between studs and then electrically connects to a 220 V breaker which crosses both legs of the power feed plus neutral. This circuit needs to be the first one in the breaker box. The concept is that if a lightning surge comes in, the protector immediately fires and dumps the surge to ground. It acts as a sink for the spike and provides a more attractive "shortest path" for the spike to get to ground.
Me? I have the whole house protector, and I still use individual units on all my electronics in the house. I favor Panamax, but others are just as good. A lightning strike blew the bark off an oak tree two doors down the street couple years ago; houses on either side of me lost AC units, appliances, etc. My whole house protector fired and I didn't lose a thing except for my Directv satellite receiver. Stupid me forgot to protect the phone line coming in the house and the Directv unit was the first thing the surge saw when it entered the house on the phone line. Doh! I also had to replace the whole house unit because once they fire, they give up their blue smoke and you can never get the blue smoke back in again. The units have LED's to indicate when they have blown so you are never in doubt if you check it after storms. Most Panamax and Monster units also have protection for phone lines and TV cables, too, which is why I tend to favor them.
None of this will help with brown-outs, or phase-shifts on the power lines which will fry mostly electric motors and the like. The only protection for those is a non-switching UPS.
So, pop the $50 for the good surge protector for the CPAP machine. Remember the battle it took to get it from your medical insurance company; you don't want to repeat that battle with your casualty insurance company, too. Kudos to the DME that requires surge protectors for equipment they place; IMHO, all of them should do that.
OK, bad me, that darn electrical engineering degree got in my way again. Think I am bad here? you should see how boring I am at parties.
-Jeff - who just can't seem to keep his big mouth shut
Yes, the surge protector will help even with a two-prong plug. People get yellow instead of green on their protectors with a two prong instead of a three simply because the unit is telling you that if you have plugged in a three-prong, something is wrong.
A good surge protector puts a gas-discharge diode (or equally rapid discharge solid-state diode) between each leg of the AC power feed and the ground lead. An even better unit will put a rapid-discharge diode in-line with the ground lead as well. If lightning strikes a few doors down the block (or even a block or two over), the electrical discharge spreads out over the earth's surface sped along by the fact that the ground is usually saturated with water from that Texas thunderstorm. This surge actually comes up the ground plane into your house via that copper rod driven into the ground out by where power enters. This is how houses up to half a mile away from a lightning strike can still lose electrical appliances, motors, etc.
So, for this type of a discharge, the double-insulated CPAP machine which doesn't need a ground lead is actually better off than a grounded PC power supply which will fry unless that surge protection disconnects the electrical ground from the earth ground when that spike enters the house.
Now, the $10 Wal-Mart surge protector will actually only have one rapid-discharge diode connecting the "hot" lead (black one) to ground. They won't even protect the neutral lead (white one). These are basically useless, IMHO, unless the power feed to your house takes a direct hit. I, for one, have underground utility feed so this is not too much of a concern. So, go for the Belkin at a minimum; the Monster or Panamax is better still. The difference between the better and best is the speed at which the diode will discharge and break the connection in event of a surge. You need pico-second response times to be fully protected.
Or, you can give your favorite electrician about $350 ($200 for the unit, $150 for installation) and put in a Leviton whole-house surge protector right next to the breaker box. This unit mounts in the wall between studs and then electrically connects to a 220 V breaker which crosses both legs of the power feed plus neutral. This circuit needs to be the first one in the breaker box. The concept is that if a lightning surge comes in, the protector immediately fires and dumps the surge to ground. It acts as a sink for the spike and provides a more attractive "shortest path" for the spike to get to ground.
Me? I have the whole house protector, and I still use individual units on all my electronics in the house. I favor Panamax, but others are just as good. A lightning strike blew the bark off an oak tree two doors down the street couple years ago; houses on either side of me lost AC units, appliances, etc. My whole house protector fired and I didn't lose a thing except for my Directv satellite receiver. Stupid me forgot to protect the phone line coming in the house and the Directv unit was the first thing the surge saw when it entered the house on the phone line. Doh! I also had to replace the whole house unit because once they fire, they give up their blue smoke and you can never get the blue smoke back in again. The units have LED's to indicate when they have blown so you are never in doubt if you check it after storms. Most Panamax and Monster units also have protection for phone lines and TV cables, too, which is why I tend to favor them.
None of this will help with brown-outs, or phase-shifts on the power lines which will fry mostly electric motors and the like. The only protection for those is a non-switching UPS.
So, pop the $50 for the good surge protector for the CPAP machine. Remember the battle it took to get it from your medical insurance company; you don't want to repeat that battle with your casualty insurance company, too. Kudos to the DME that requires surge protectors for equipment they place; IMHO, all of them should do that.
OK, bad me, that darn electrical engineering degree got in my way again. Think I am bad here? you should see how boring I am at parties.
-Jeff - who just can't seem to keep his big mouth shut
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rested gal
- Posts: 12881
- Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Tennessee
Jeff, that's great information! Don't ever apologize for giving good advice. I appreciated it - copied it, saved it, and intend to get the brand you use. We have a lot of thunderstorms where I live. Love to watch them at a distance but don't like what one did to a fax machine, microwave and a few other things some years ago!
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- Hugh Jass