Surge Protector/Power Supplies...What to get.

[westom]

The Sat dish and telephone are grounded via the rod. There are two wires connected; the sat installation was done by the installer; the contract covers any damage etc, regardless of the reason. The telephone system was redone about two years ago from the TNI back to set up for DSL which finally became available

Telephone and satellite dish are required (by code) to make that connection. Phone wires had surge protection for I don't know how long ago. 1950 surge protectors were these:
http://www.inwap.com/inwap/chez/Phoneline.jpg

Today, the Netowrk Interface Device (NID or TNI) contains a 'whole house' protector as long required by code. It is only as effective as its earth ground. So an NID should connect less than 10 feet to single point ground, no sharp wire bends, and its ground wire not bundled with other wires (last is often an installer mistake when installers want to make things look nice - tie wrap all wires together).

Dish installers are rather bad. Dish must be earthed directly (much like the lightning rod). Then its coax wire must make that short connection to single point ground just before entering the building. Numerous dish installations violate these requirements.

Lightning rod need not be to the same ground. Lightning rod is essentially intercepting a surge and connecting it directly to earth without anything making a good copper wire connection to that 'system' (the building).

A surge is a high voltage created by a current that will increase voltage, as necessary, to make that earthing connection. If anything tries to stop or absorb a surge (ie Furman), then voltage increases as necessary to blow through the blocking device or even use a safety ground wire to bypass protection. If an earth connection is not fully conductive (ie wooden church steeple), current still flows through that material - destructively. Same concept. Voltage increases as necessary so that the current still flows. A lightning rod is about connecting a surge to earth on a path as short and conductive as possible. Then ightning need not find earth destructively via wooden 2x4s or household appliances.

Every incoming utility wire must connect to single point earth ground before entering building - for engineering reasons beyond this post.

A surge is a voltage increase - typically thousands of volts. Voltage drop (sag: 80-90 volts) is a brownouts; not a surge. Brownouts do not harm electronic hardware. But may be destructive to unsaved data.

Each electrical anomaly has a different solution. Whereas surge protectors are located at the service entrance (have that dedicated earthing wire); a UPS is installed somewhere in the building to provide backup power during blackouts and extreme brownouts. That UPS has no earthing wire. A UPS provides data protection from 80 VAC. Laptops already have anything that a UPS might accomplish.

Lightning should never be the biggest culprit. Most failures are directly traceable to manufacturing defects that occur even years later. If lightning is a major culprit, damage is directly traceable to human failure. For example, your telco has a computer connected to overhead wires all over town. It will suffer typically 100 surges with each thunderstorm. How often is your town without phone service for four days while they replace that damaged computer? Protection from lightning is that routine. If damage does occur, an analysis and correction starts with earth ground - where a human failure has permitted damage to occur (see the Orange County solution below).

Some examples: one FL townhouse repeatedly suffered damage. His communication wires entered on one side. AC electric on the other. He had no single point ground. His neighbors were not willing to spend money to encircle his building with a ground loop - or other solutions recommended by this utility:
http://www.cinergy.com/surge/ttip08.htm

Last I heard he was moving. He had no alternative but to suffer repeated electronics damage. Had the builder been informed and responsible, he could have implemented even the simplest solutions such as what this radio station did:
http://scott-inc.com/html/ufer.htm

How did Orange County FL stop damage to their critical 911 system? The solution is always about how a surge connects energy to earth:
http://www.copper.org/applications/electrical/pq/casestudy/florida911.html

How to identify an effective 'protector'? It must have that dedicated wire to connect to what provides surge 'protection' - single point earth ground. That energy must be absorbed harmlessly in earth. Otherwise energy will hunt for earth ground destructively inside the building. Yes, renters have a problem if the landlord is not cooperative. A kludge may be necessary. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.