What should I do to protect my computer from the summer electrical sto

What should I do to protect my computer from the summer electrical storms?
- David

This question was answered on July 22, 2002. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

Electrical storms can cause power problems for much more than just your computer, but there are a number of steps that you can take to protect yourself in the event of a storm.

Even if you do have a surge protector in place, you should consider shutting down and physically unplugging from the electrical outlet because surge protectors DO NOT protect your internal home wiring and the electronics connected to it from a lightning strike should it hit your home directly. This includes your computer, monitor, printer, scanner, modem, cable modem, DSL router, home stereo, television or any electronics that are important.

This ‘air gap’ method of power protection is the cheapest and guaranteed to be 100% effective!

If the power does go out before you get a chance to shutdown and unplug the devices, be sure to unplug them before the power comes back on A major risk to your sensitive electronics is when the power is turned back on because of the ‘surge’ that can be created during the initial restoration of power.

When it comes to buying a good surge protector start by looking for a UL 1449 (Underwriters Laboratories) Compliance rating, which is UL’s minimum performance standard for surge suppression This ‘clamping voltage’ rating can range from 330 volts to 4000 volts with the lower number being the better, since that is where it starts to ‘clamp’ or divert the excess voltage

Another important rating is known as the ‘energy dissipation’ or ‘absorption’, which is measured in “joules” Look for a rating of at least 200 (the higher, the better) Really good protection starts at 600 joules.

For computers, traditional “surge” protectors may not be good enough, because they only address part of the problem when it comes to power

The lack of power (“power sags” or “brownouts”) is as much of a concern as “surges” when it comes to data devices Lack of power will not damage your computer’s components but it can corrupt data as you are working Anyone that has had a document or spreadsheet suddenly become corrupted or inaccessible may have been the victim of a “sag” in power Remembering that computers deal in 0’s and 1’s, lack of power can cause a “0” to become a “1” and vice versa.

Your best bet for desktop computers is to employ power protection that is also a “battery back-up” system, which incorporates protection for both surges and sags (Laptop users, essentially have a battery back-up system because of the internal battery, so a good surge protector will do just fine.)

In addition to providing protection, battery back-up units allow your computer to continue to run for a period of time (5 to 10 minutes) in the event of a power outage which gives you time to save your critical data.

They also incorporate software that monitors the power situation and will properly shut down the computer and all open files in your absence, a must if you run your computer around the clock.

Major brand surge protection starts at $35 and battery back-up units start at just under $100.