Recent content by westom

Maybe view the datasheet for that varistor. To have that particular catastrophic damage means a voltage well exceeding 900 volts. That should get your attention. Because no protector adjacent to an appliance will stop or absorb that kind of surge. A protector adjacent to the appliance can...

Most all damage has no visual indication. Nobody can make an honest suggestion without first defining what the incoming and the other outgoing electrical path was. Once you know that, then anyone can also say why you have that electrical spike inside the house. You had damage because the...

Better information would also include other key infdicators. For example, lights at both ends of each Ethernet cable report valuable information. Typically a light on the computer's Internet connection. And the router's front panel lights. What are those lights doing especially when a...

Now let's expand on that concept. Lightning struck a tree maybe 10 meters from a cow. The cow dies. Did EMF kill the cow? No. The cow was struck directly. Electricity passed through that cow. Lightning is a connection from the cloud to charges maybe 5 kilometers distant. An...

In every case, harm occurs only when the current enters the body on one path. And leaves via some other limb.

A relationship between discharge and life expectancy was described previously - exponential. I rarely use a battery down to less than 80%. Therefore its 300 discharge cycles are hardly used. If you must use the battery, then do not worry about battery life expectancy. You are using the...

You are doing the most to harm your battery. This laptop is used every day now for over eight years. It still has the original battery. This battery is still good for at least two hours. Laptop batteries were never intended for operation without AC mains. Battery function is similar to...

Junk science was demonstrated in elementary school science. Spontaneous reproduction was proved when a dry lake filled with water and spontaneously generated life. A conclusion proven by observation. Not tempered by well proven facts. Observation is one reason for popular urban myths...

The power supply is why electronics have protection superior to anything connected to its power cord. Appreciate how power supplies worked even before the IBM PC existed. That 120 VAC is filtered. Then converted to high voltage (well over 300 volts) DC. Then filtered again. Then...

Those links provide important facts that Bud routinely forgets to mention. For example, the NIST says quite bluntly what a protector does when not properly earthed: > A very important point to keep in mind is that your surge protector will work by > diverting the surges to ground. The best...

Some wires have better protection when no protector exists. When the wire literally connects to Earth (ie satellite dish, cable TV, AC neutral wire). Other wires only have a protector (ie telephone) because, if earthed by wire, then service would not be possible. The NIST (US government...

Your telco's switching computer is typically exposed to 100 surges with each storm. How often is your town without phone service for four days while they replace their $multi-million computer? 'Whole house' protector was how protection was done even 100 years ago when operators had headsets...

You are assuming a surge from the wrong source. Destructive surges are microsecond events. Protection installers are gnarly even about sharp wire bends, ground wires not inside metallic conduit, no splices, separation from other wires, etc. Low impedance is not about a thicker wire. Lower...

As I kept saying in most every post. That barn is not earthed. It is earthed to meet code. Code only cares about human safety. It is not earthed for transistor safety. The expression was posted repeatedly. "low impedance (ie 'less than 10 foot')" . Or "short (ie 'less than 10 feet')"...

Yes. His claims may apply to certin unique situations not found here. Those grounds must exist as you describe for many reasons - including surge protection. Meanwhile. the OP describes damage because Earth ground does not exist for that barn. (A wire grounded in the house is not earthing...