The OneStopBuy.com, Inc.newsletter is your monthly resource for product specials of significance, tips and advice, breakdown of new technologies, and practical application for items our customers already own or are seeking to purchase. Links for outside reference are frequently included.
Inside This Month's Issue
Editor's Letter
"Wiring Your Home for the Season"
Commercial/Industrial Product Focus
"57000 Series Panel Mounted Devices"
Whole House Protection
"The Real Scoop on Surge"
Q & A
"What Can I Do About Power Outages?"
Product Special
"Plug in to Power Protection with the
S1000 and S2000 Series"
Tip of the Month
"How to Ground Devices Properly"
Editor's Letter
Wiring Your Home for the Season
As we're entering the Spring season now, there are a number of places where new technology can be utilized. We'd like to highlight some products that will offer phenomenal solutions. For some who are engaged in an annual Spring Cleaning, you might be looking to upgrade your home. But this might involve more than changing appearance; for many, it means embracing the most quality and efficient technology available.
Our aim is to get the wheels turning this month. Perhaps you're new to surge protection and would like to install some this year, but just don't know where to begin? Maybe you've been unaware that storms can affect your electrical equipment even through phone lines; now, right before any more severe weather starts to hit, you'd like to finally take that extra step to protect your appliances and your household. Maybe you just want to ground existing devices adequately but with little hassle.
It's all up to you this year. OneStopBuy.com, Inc., of course, will provide the products that can bring about that difference.
Also, after reading through this month's issue, we ask that you might take a moment to complete our brief survey. Your answers will be used to help us give attention to your own interests in our newsletter.
Commercial/Industrial Product Focus
57000 Series Panel Mounted Devices
In both the home and the workplace, people are relying more and more on microprocessor-based equipment. As microprocessors get faster and smaller, though, they also become more sensitive to power quality problems.
There are more than 50 microprocessors in an average modern home, embedded not only in desktop and laptop computers, but also in products such as televisions, stereos, refrigerators, microwaves, security systems, and garage door openers.
We take these conveniences for granted, but they can be rendered useless by a power surge. Why make yourself ever have to replace an expensive appliance, computer, or A/V device? Leviton's surge protection panels could protect your devices from the beginning.
In many cases, a small investment in something like the 57000 Series can prevent these problems, safeguard your sensitive equipment and help you to eliminate costly downtime. Leviton's devices protect you against voltage transients and surges that can damage, degrade, or destroy critical equipment.
This series is designed for use where a multi-phase, transient voltage surge suppressor (TVSS) is specified. The panels
guard against successive surges or lightning strikes with both primary and secondary protection. In addition, they all provide effective building entrance and branch panel protection, and feature easily replaceable modules and an optional surge counter. Indicator lights are easy to see, a status relay and an audible alarm are included for monitoring power and surge suppression, and the modules are replaceable and deliver redundant protection. All 57000 products have been tested to ANSI/IEEE C62.45 standards for Category A, B and C environments and are UL 1449 (2nd Edition) Listed. They are also backed by Leviton’s Limited Ten-Year Warranty.
You can purchase these products directly from OneStopBuy.com here.
Whole House Protection
The Real Scoop on Surge
Since the usage of internet and home theater components has risen, the electronics used in homes are more susceptible to voltage surges than ever before. Voltage surges can clearly cause havoc in industrial, commercial, institutional, and even residential environments. In order to be completely effective, surge protection in a building needs to cover both power and communication lines. Many are unaware, actually, that surges can enter through communication lines like satellite dishes, cable TV, or telephones. What's more, a lot of surge protective devices (SPD's) only guard powerlines and not the second type of line. Leviton offers, luckily, a complete selection of surge protection for powerline, communication line, and telephone applications.
Leviton's catalog number 51110-PTC is one device that protects against surges by guarding electronic equipment from damage. It installs at load center to divert high-energy surges on 120/240V, 50/60 Hz single-phase AC power lines. By using hard-wired screw terminations, the SPD provides2-pair telephone/fax/modem protection; dualCATV/satellite feed surge protection is also a feature. This unit is DHC Power Line Carrier compatible, and offers separatePhase 1 and Phase 2 status indicator lights. The protected Equipment Warranty covers $10,000 for "White Appliances" and $25,000 for Communication Electronics.
There are, although, a number of misconceptions about the effectiveness of SPD's. Surge protection devices can't cure sags or swells in AC power provided by electrical utilities. They also can't reduce the harmonic conditions produced by non-linear loads like motors and switching-mode power supplies within computer or fluorescent lighting systems. And, despite some claims, SPD's won't provide any utility bill savings. They don't cut consumption at all. SPD's also can't remedy power outages. But if there's a loss of utility line voltage, a device that can temporarily replace utility power is the Uninterruptible Power Supply, or UPS.
In the simplest terms, SPD's protect sensitive electronic equipment from transient voltage surge levels that would otherwise damage them. They reduce transients to levels that will not harm or disrupt a device's operation.
Learn more about how to provide effective surge protection.
View an animation that showcases all of Leviton's surge protection solutions.
As we've already seen, Surge Protective Devices are not made to remedy power outages. If there is a loss of power, though, a device that can temporarily replace utility power is the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
Leviton's Lev-UPS product line offers the latest technology and features available in UPS's. These devices are the most popular choice today for solving voltage regulation problems.
Basically, the UPS is equipped with a switching mode power supply operating off a battery. The battery is charged while utility power is present. In the event that utility power causes a regulation problem, an automatic transfer switch allows the battery to deliver power to the load through a DC-to-AC inverter. In this way, all Lev-UPS devices are made to help prevent losses and the costly downtime associated with outages, sags, and blackouts. They are designed to provide back-up power for computers and workstations, data and telecom stations, industrial and commercial controls, medical equipment, lighting, and many other sensitive loads.
Like SPD's, most UPS systems also have their own shortcomings in that they won't effectively eliminate surges. Although some may have internal components which are protected against spikes, the UPS itself cannot protect any of its loads against spikes and, of course, the UPS can’t have any effect on parts of a facility’s AC lines not connected to the UPS output.
But for the devices you have which are surge protected, a UPS will provide effective temporary backup power whenever there is an outage. As with all of Leviton's power quality devices, the UPS is a high performance product that will safe-guard sensitive equipment, along with all other types of household electronics. More power to you!
You can select and purchase Uninterruptible Power Supplies here, straight from OneStopBuy.com.
Product Special
Plug in to Power Protection with the
S1000 and S2000 Series
All of Leviton’s Surge Protected Plug Strips provide defense for a variety of everyday applications. They are ideal for both residential needs and at commercial workstations to protect computer, peripherals, and other electronic equipment from electrical power surges, transients, and noise spikes.
The S1000 and S2000 Series, specifically, are designed with the ground pins oriented outwardly. What does mean for you? In short, this helps accommodate more plug configurations than the regular ones. LEDs are also a great feature, which work to indicate surge protection and help you to verify proper polarity and grounding. In addition, the devices feature audible alarms to inform you when the circuit breaker has tripped. These surge strips are definitely heavy duty. Leviton designed them with quality, safety, and durability in mind. Each unit features a robust power input cord, resettable circuit breaker, and internal fusing circuit protection.
S1000 models feature 6 outlets. S2000 models features 9 outlets (3 with Transformer Spacing). High performance on key surge protection parameters including Clamping Voltage, Max Surge Current, Joules and EMI/RFI Noise Rejection, helps ensure long product life. S1000/S2000 Series Surge Strips are also compliant with UL 1449 Edition 2.5, 1363, and 1283, and are ANSI/IEEE C62.41.1, C62.41.2, and C62.45 CSA Certified.
Other surge strip features include:
Durable ABS housing
Tested and Listed to new UL 1449 Edition 2.5 Standard
Optional Coax and Telco protection
EMI/RFI noise rejection
Keyholes for wall mount and non-skid rubber feet for floor use
6' input cord with right angle NEMA 5-15P plug
Cable management attachment points
Connected Equipment Warranty and Lifetime Product Warranty
Tip of the Month
How To Ground Devices Properly
Grounding is a necessary element of any power, signal, or data network. The problems for electronics begin with ground potential. When changes to this take place, they can cause serious damage or disrupt the operation of electronic devices.
A large problem is that most buildings don't have very adequate grounding systems. First, they often start out with an underperforming ground grid. Second, the grounding system may be sized to cope only with the frequency (meaning 60Hz) power grounds rather than the high-frequency currents present within lighting strikes. Third, the grounding system might not be well maintained, or it may have been degraded or damaged over the years because of changes to a building.
As such, there are several fundamental principles that must be taken into account when planning a grounding system:
Soil Conductivity - This is perhaps the most important. Soil conductivity is measured in Ohm-meters, and the lower it is, the better the ability of the soil to conduct away unwanted lightning surges and leakage currents.
Physical Geometry of the Ground Grid - This refers to length and width, and will determine the overall impedance of the entire grid. The lower the impedance, the better the grid will be for conducting away heavy currents. An overall grid impedance of 5 Ohms or less is desirable for most computer systems.
Inductance of the cable going to the ground system
Inductance of the interconnection cabling
Skin effect - This is the tendency of high-frequency currents to flow along the outer surface of a conductor.
Good practice in designing ground systems seeks to minimize skin effect and inductance, as these two things are closely related. For more information, we recommend reading Leviton's Technical Manual on grounding, power quality, and other SPD performance issues here.
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We take these conveniences for granted, but they can be rendered useless by a power surge. Why make yourself ever have to replace an expensive appliance, computer, or A/V device? Leviton's surge protection panels could protect your devices from the beginning.
Basically, the UPS is equipped with a switching mode power supply operating off a battery. The battery is charged while utility power is present. In the event that utility power causes a regulation problem, an automatic transfer switch allows the battery to deliver power to the load through a DC-to-AC inverter. In this way, all Lev-UPS devices are made to help prevent losses and the costly downtime associated with outages, sags, and blackouts. They are designed to provide back-up power for computers and workstations, data and telecom stations, industrial and commercial controls, medical equipment, lighting, and many other sensitive loads.