Protecting Your Home Theater System
By Matt Whitlock | + Share
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.
Power Strips
For the record, a power strip is NOT a surge protector.
A power strip is an accessory that breaks one power outlet into many, most commonly six. Inside a power strip, there are no power filters and no surge protection. All of the nasty power in your home goes right through, as well as nearly all surges and dips in power. Most of them do include a 15-amp circuit breaker, but don't rely on that to protect your coveted goods from smaller power surges.
Power strips can be useful. If you need additional outlets, plugging a power strip into a surge protector will give you more outlets that are filtered from outside noise (not inside noise) and protected from surges.
If this is all that you have been using, read on to learn more about other types of power products that can protect you.
In-Series Devices
In-series devices are power protectors and filters that provide benefit to electronic devices directly plugged into them. Keep in mind that in-series devices must be hooked up properly, and connected to every incoming line, for them to work as claimed.
There are thousands of different in-series surge protectors out there. The majority of them help your system by filtering out EMI and RFI as well as providing some protection to surges and spikes in power. Some of them also provide protection against browning, which is when there is a severe drop in power delivery.
In-series surge protectors can be purchased in two forms. One form looks like a big power strip, the other looks like a component that sits with the rest of your gear. You can get quality protectors in both forms, but the really good ones usually look like components.
The differences you'll find in surge protectors will vary from unit to unit. One of the major differences between them is the level of filtration they provide. EMI an RFI noise can be tough to completely eliminate. Good surge protectors will do a good job cleaning up outside noise from the rest of devices in your home, like your microwave. The downfall here is that the devices within your system also create their own noise. The really good ones will eliminate noise between devices plugged in, ensuring that your system is EMI and RFI free.
Another difference between surge protectors is the level of power protection you get. To understand these differences, you'll need to know a little bit about how these devices protect your gear against surges and spikes.
Just about all in-series surge protectors use MOVs (metal-oxide varsitors) to protect your equipment. MOVs are great because they take excess electricity and dissipate it as heat. When a surge comes, the MOV dissipates the excess current before it's all sent to your gear. However, MOVs won't last forever. MOVs can take a pounding but their ability to dissipate electricity diminishes they more they are used. This is why most in-series surge protectors are called "sacrificial." This means that they chug along until the "big-one" comes. When a major power surge occurs, it's like putting a car in front of a freight train. The car might derail the train, but the car will be destroyed. The destruction of the MOV should stop the surge long enough for the protector to shut down, sacrificing itself to save your gear.
Quality surge protectors will stack many MOVs in a row, allowing a longer service life and greater surge protection. The nice ones will also have a little LED light on them, telling you the status of the MOVs. If the light goes on, the MOVs have taken the "big-one," or enough little ones to no longer be able to adequately protect your equipment. Cheaper ones will use less MOVs, and have no status indication on them. Without indication, you may never know that the MOV(s) inside are still good. Surge protectors with spent MOVs can still pass electricity if the circuit is still complete, but offer no protection whatsoever.
There are also some surge protectors that are claimed as non-sacrificial, which means that when the "big-one" comes, the MOVs are supposed to throw the excess electricity to a fuse or breaker and disconnect the circuit or redirect surges out of the circuit through ground instead of destroying itself. These types of products could offer a greater service life. However, they will not last forever. The MOVs are still dissipating the smaller surges and spikes, which could render it useless over a longer period of time. How long depends on how many smaller surges it has to deal with.
On the packages of many surge protectors, they claim that they will protect you against lightning strikes. And they will, but not in the way most people think. Think realistically for a moment: no little box is going to stop a lightning strike. That would be like stopping a train with a Styrofoam cup. If your house is actually struck by lightning, electricity of that force is going to go right through that little box like it isn't even there, most likely melting the electronics inside. Manufacturers know this. They play the odds that you are not going to get struck by lightning, but will provide "financial protection" in case you do. So if you get hit by lightning, and your surge protector was connected properly, they will pay to repair or replace any connected equipment that gets blown up. So, if a guy tells you that it will stop a lightning strike, you can laugh at him and walk away!
A/C Regenerators & Voltage Regulators
A/C regenerators work similarly to in-series surge protectors. However, the techniques they employ to further eliminate noise are much different. In-series surge protectors use in-line filters and air chokes to purge the line of EMI and RFI. They often do a good job, but the use of air chokes can rob the dynamics of power hungry gear.
Regenerators usually always convert A/C power to D/C current, and then back again. This approach can do a great job of eliminating unwanted EMI and RFI noise for any component plugged directly into them. This approach was developed during WWII, to provide cleaner power on naval ships. Another approach is to use current balancing, which tries to match current flow coming into and leaving your home theater system, which can also provide exceptional results.
Unfortunately, these advanced forms of surge suppression and filtration can be significantly more costly than the traditional in-series type.
Voltage regulators don't usually provide surge protection or noise filtration. What they do is correct voltage fluctuations in your electrical system. Using a variable voltage transformer, these devices can actually add or subtract voltage to your equipment.
Perfect voltage in the U.S. is supposed to be a steady 120 volts. In reality, the voltage in your home can swing constantly anywhere from 80 to 140 volts, although regular swings of greater than 8% are extremely rare. Stabilizing your voltage ensures that your equipment is receiving the exact power amount it was designed for.
Since voltage regulators don't usually provide surge protection or filtration, you'll need to add another device to manage those functions for your system to be truly protected.
Parallel A/C Devices
When you're talking about parallel A/C devices, you're almost definitely talking about Richard Gray's Power Company units. Parallel devices significantly differ to how they deal with noise and surge protection.
The concept of parallel devices is difficult to grasp because most people think about power protection in a "series" frame of mind. Parallel devices work globally in a circuit, which means that your device doesn't actually have to be plugged directly into them receive the benefits. The only requirement is that they are connected to the same circuit.
Noise in your electrical system is usually in series to the A/C line, and is caused by inductive loads like fan motors, hair dryers, and air conditioners. Parallel units place an inductive load in parallel to the A/C line, therefore canceling the series load. In parallel to the line, these units operate at a lower impedance than other devices, allowing it to absorb line noise before it goes to other components.
Additional performance is added by its special inductor, which stores additional energy in a magnetic field and replaces it, cycle to cycle, on an as needed basis.
Parallel units like the Richard Gray do offer surge protection, however devices need to be plugged in to the unit to take advantage of it. These units are also truly non-sacrificial, which means if the big one comes it will blow a fuse rather than destroy the internal MOV. Small power surges are absorbed by the inductor, rather than dissipated by the MOV.
In Summary
The choices of power products are endless. Determining the one that's right for you can be a difficult process. The most important thing to remember is that these devices are designed to protect and enhance the performance of the things you've already bought. In terms of protection, something is always better than nothing.
The price for performance is all over the board. A good in-series strip can be anywhere from fifty to three hundred bucks. The component type and advanced forms can reach the thousands. Let the amount you've invested in your system steer you to the right category, but you don't have to go overboard unless you want to. Focus on the unit that will meet your needs, and provide the level of performance that you desire at the price you're willing to afford.
Please, don't let your gear stay plugged into a power strip. It's like surfing the net without virus protection. You may not get your just desserts now, but you will, sooner than later.