Power surge question
Power surge question
(OP)
Hello,
I have a question about power surges. We have a pc that is on a protected circuit (backup power) and is connected to a monitor which is not protected. Can a power surge migrate to the pc via the video card? A user brought it up to my attention and I'm thinking this is ridiculous... there's no way that could happen. Thanks for any replies.
I have a question about power surges. We have a pc that is on a protected circuit (backup power) and is connected to a monitor which is not protected. Can a power surge migrate to the pc via the video card? A user brought it up to my attention and I'm thinking this is ridiculous... there's no way that could happen. Thanks for any replies.





RE: Power surge question
But, some HF pollution or fast transients (ESD) could perhaps sneak in that way. But that shouldn't be a problem either. And a UPS wouldn't prevent it. Most of these "but, have you considered" (this and that?) are mostly someone showning off.
RE: Power surge question
RE: Power surge question
The occasional kilovolt transient that you get on ordinary mains supply should not be a problem though.
RE: Power surge question
RE: Power surge question
When a piece of equipment faults to ground, for a brief time until fuses blow or power supplies shut down, there is a large current in the earth wire back to the fuse/junction box and the gound pin at ALL power outlets on that loop circuit can rise momentarily to full mains voltage. Subsequently any other piece of equipment connected to that circuit will be subject to a capacitive current from the chassis ground into the circuit boards and they may be damaged. This occurrs more frequently than you'd think.
This is going beyond your question but for interest the protection againdst this is to use MOVS (A-N, A-G, N-G) at each equipment and insert an earth choke of about 1uH in series with the ground wire. The choke must be capable of carrying full fault current.
RE: Power surge question
I don’t think that there is any real protection from a direct strike taken on the incoming power; you can only lesson the severity with protection devices. Surge protection power strips are a great “first line” of defense for most general users. For systems requiring more protection, add high frequency filtering as well as surge protection on the incoming power lines into your main power distribution system. The great thing about a UPS system is that it often offers filtering and some level of surge protection. If you add filtering and surge protection before a UPS system you gain even more.
Extra protection only seems like a waste of money if you have never experienced a devastating surge event.
The old adage “an ounce of prevention…” says allot for surge/transient protection.
Best of luck.
RE: Power surge question
Bung
Life is non-linear...
RE: Power surge question
RE: Power surge question
A lightning stroke on either of your systems could take your PC out unless both systems are provided with both lightning arrestors and surge suppression.
But outside of lightning stroke, I would not be concerned about other surges propogating through the video cable from the monitor to the PC.