Thinking About Power Protection

If you've laid down your hard-earned cash on a new home theater system and not thought about power protection, then you're missing an important piece of the puzzle. If you think that the $4.99 power strip from your local hardware store is protecting your hardware, think again. The performance of your system could be crippled without adequate power filtration, not to mention that equipment killing power surges are pounding your gear every single day.

There is hope. It's time to ditch that power strip and get on board with a real home theater power protection unit.

As you look around for quality surge protectors, you will become aware that there are many different kinds out there. So many, in fact, that it could make your head spin. With the proper knowledge you can select the right power protection unit for your system.

Read on to learn why power protection is important, and what the different kinds of devices out there can do to help you.

Why Power Protection is Important

First of all, the electricity that flows through our homes is dirty. If power were water, it would be filled with nasty things like mud, bacteria, and garbage. It's not something you'd want to take a bath in, yet every electronic device you own does; in fact, many electronic devices like hair dryers, microwaves, and refrigerators add even more gunk to your home electrical system.

Without a clean supply of power, your equipment cannot perform at their best. All this electrical

noise, like EMI (electro-magnetic interference) and RFI (radio frequency interference) can make even the best components perform like inferior ones.

Another problem of electrical systems is the inconsistent delivery of power you're getting from your local electric company. In a perfect world, the electricity flowing into your home would be an unwavering 120V with a smooth A/C waveform that stays rock solid under the most demanding conditions. However, our world isn't perfect and the power that you get is extremely inconsistent. On a daily basis, your components are bombarded with surges in power, both over threshold and under threshold (known as browning), which slowly eats away at their life expectancy. It's like smoking - one probably isn't going to cause cancer but a pack a day over a few years certainly could.

Another part of inconsistent power is current delivery. Most home theater systems are connected to 15-amp circuits and devices like powerful amplifiers, plasma TVs, and powered subwoofers can chew through that amount of current in no time. Oftentimes, demand outstrips supply and your electronic components fight over available power. If you could move that big green power transformer from your front yard to inside your living room, you would always have enough power to feed the hungriest of components.

Power protection devices, while not perfect, are essential for taking care of some of these problems and for getting more of the performance that you paid for. The major categories of power devices are power strips, in-series devices, A/C regenerators, and parallel devices.