10/6/09 Tech Tuesday on Protecting Your Precious Electronics from Power Problems

Get the latest Flash player

seressonline
October 06, 2009

According to FEMA electrical fires kill almost 500 people and injure over 2,000 more. Most are caused by poor maintenance of electrical appliances, incorrectly installed wiring, overloaded circuits and extension cords. The holiday season is quickly approaching when we all start to decorate and use our electronics more heavily. In fact, I have already seen Halloween decorations in many neighborhoods. This is a very relevant topic as December is the most dangerous month for electrical fires.

I have made 3 quick tips that you can try that could protect your precious electronics and perhaps even your life.

1) Don't Daisy Chain Power strips
This is more common than you think. Daisy chaining power strips is when you plug one power strip into the other. I'm not sure why but most people feel comfortable doing this but it is a bad practice. Daisy chaining results in a spread of the potential surge overload across both strips evenly. Where an overload of X size would trip one power strip, when two are connected 2X the overload is required to cause a trip to occur and so on. In short this practice puts everything you plug into the power strips at risk. It's just not worth it when a good quality extension cord can solve the problem.

2) UPS for Desktop Computer
Power surges and brown conditions can burn out computer power supplies and even cook the computer all together. At minimum a new computer power supply is around $100 to replace and if your computer gets fried, well then there's not much that can be done. Unfortunately we do sometimes have inconsistent power conditions here on Oahu. So, I do recommend a UPS for every desktop computer, especially if you're using them for business. They keep the power level constant during fluctuating power conditions and give time to save your work and shut down the machine in the event of a complete power outage.

3) Voltage Regulator for your Fancy TV
That pricey Plasma, LCD or LED HDTV won't last long with fluctuating power conditions. The amount of power used by these electronic devices is much more than a computer, so naturally they need something better than a UPS. A voltage regulator solves this problem by cleaning and normalizing the power being fed to the television. It can give your TV many years of extra service and prevent it from being damaged by power problems.

Hopefully these tips will help protect your electronics and protect yourself. We all know the holidays are coming up so be careful!

-Attila Seress

Ask Attila:
"I have heard about a new web based phone service, JAJAH, that has a Twitter calling feature. Where is it available in the US?"

Jajah (not Zsa-Zsa!) service is a bit enigmatic so let's start by calling it what it is: a calling card. There are many features surrounding it but the primary service offering is still long distance and international calling. They have introduced some interesting features which make their services more appealing and one of their beta products uses Twitter. When a user posts a specific tweet, their switching platform can call the users phone and connect them to a person on the other end.

I am interested to see how well Jajah will fare against Skype which has similar features, is a more popular and mature product. Only time will tell.

Category: Science & Technology

Tags:

Power surge Attila Seress Tech Tuesday UPS Panamax powerstrip

More From: seressonline

Play All Stop Autoplaying | Play Next

QuickList(0)

Clear | Save

0 ratings

97 views

Favorite

Playlists

Flag

Want to add to Favorites? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Want to add to Playlists? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Want to flag a video? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Statistics & Data

Video Responses (0)

This video has no Responses. Be the first to Post a Video Response.

Text Comments (0) Options

Showing 0 of 0 comments

View All 0 comments

Would you like to comment?

Join YouTube for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.

YouTube	Programs	Help	Policy	Discover
Contact Us	Advertising	Get Help	Privacy Policy	YouTube on Your Phone
YouTube Store	Developers	YouTube Handbook	Terms of Service	YouTube on Your Site
Press Room	Partnerships	Community Help Forums	Copyright Notices	YouTube on Your TV
Business Blog	Content Management	Safety Center	Community Guidelines	YouTube RSS Feeds
YouTube Blog		Creator's Corner		TestTube

Add YouTube to your Google homepage

Current Location: Worldwide Show locations