what are "jouls" and how many do u need in a surge protector? (1 Viewer)

[Nathan Cook]

i just bought a couple of marantz monoblock amps and im going to plug them into a surge suppresor. there are lots of choices out there. i dont know what the heck to get. they all have different joul ratings. what are jouls and how many do u need?

 

[RobertCharlotte]

See if this site helps with some of the basics:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/surge-protector.htm

 

[RobertCharlotte]

Sorry about that. I gave you the link to the whole article, and the discussion of joule ratings isn't until page 7. Here's that:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/surge-protector7.htm

 

[Philip Hamm]

You measure my power in megajouls!

 

[Mike Knapp]

What do you measure in familyjoules?

Mike

 

[Bill Kane]

Here's a link to the HTF Primer (in Basics):b

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

Philip Hamm is a total idiot.

 

[Allan Jayne]

One joule equals one watt per second.
Since I don't know the dynamics of lightning I would just have to go by the recommendations of surge suppressor manufacturers to find out how many joules of protection I would need.
The surge suppressor short circuits the surge (excessive voltage) to ground. If the surge is too big (too many joules for the rating) the surge suppressor burns out. The voltage can be quite high if it lasts for an extremely short time and the number of joules might not be that great. Or if the surge voltage is not quite so high but the surge lasts for one or two whole seconds, the number of joules may be more than the suppressor can handle.
There is still a luck factor. If the lightning hit on a power line is close enough to you or is strong enough, no reasonably priced surge suppressor will protect your equipment, although, still, the higher the joule rating, the better the chance of not suffering damage.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm
(For the uninitiated, one hertz equals one cycle per second. The term hertz has been around many decades before electronic equipment was spec'ed out in Hz but the error most people made was not including the words "per second" when using the terms cycles, kilocycles, etc. to refer to frequencies.)