Re: System Saver IIgs -- ID of burned part?-- line protection

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

The so-called "surge protectors" that are widely sold (at least in the U.S.)
based upon one to three MOVs shunted across the hot, neutral, and ground
AC supply leads are not intended to be lightning arrestors.

They will do nothing to protect the poor devil whose power pole is struck
by lightning.  But, some distance away, thousands of people who might
have experienced a relatively low energy thousand-volt spike as a result
of the relatively more distant lightning disturbance, will find that their
equipment will turn on and work, instead of having its power supply diodes
blown.  The surge protectors are for the many, not for the few unfortunates
whose problem is severe.

In most parts of the U.S.--some parts of Florida excepted--this insurance
is quite sufficient, since most people will never experience a lightning-
induced or switching-transient-induced failure in their lifetimes.  Certainly
this is true in places where thunderstorms are rare and power is reliable.

-michael

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