I remember having an urgent house call to visit a lovely home in a fancy part of town.
The lovely couple led me to their entertainment center, which included a large-screen TV, a stunning sound system, and a Blu-Ray player… it looked like a setup that you would see in a magazine. Except, an electrical surge crippled most items in their setup.
Then came the question: “How can we prevent this from happening again?”
I should start by saying that a surge protector is NOT meant to protect your devices from electrical issues that occur during a thunderstorm. Your devices wouldn’t stand a chance if a lightning strike or, more commonly, a brownout occurs (when the lights dim to half power).
A battery backup device, pictured above and also known as an “Uninterruptible Power Supply” (UPS), maintains a constant source of power in the event of a power loss. It achieves this by powering your devices from the built-in battery within it.
The UPS is excellent for unexpected power loss. It may only keep your computer powered for about 10 minutes, but that should be plenty of time to shut things down before you lose any work.
BUT… that is not 100% effective in saving your devices from a lightning strike or brownout.
What is the 100% Free Method to Protect Any Device?
I can feel my colleagues skipping to this paragraph to see what I’m about to say. The truth is. The only way to 100% protect your devices from any form of electrical damage is to quite literally unplug them from the wall. I know.. I can feel the eyes rolling everywhere.
Most important electrical devices tend to have sensitive components inside, meaning a surge of electricity could easily wipe them out.
My family knows about the four plugs in our home that need to be unplugged during serious storms. One of them is the internet router and Wi-Fi, which is the most common item to go during a storm.
If you operate a business, instruct everyone to turn off their computers and unplug their devices from the wall. I can usually expect at least one computer to fry after every hurricane. When everyone comes in the following day… you are virtually guaranteed to be back in business.
If you’re reading this after the storm and have a computer down… please let me know. We sometimes have magical ways to restore systems back to working order. Keyword: sometimes.
