Joules vs. Watts

[CORVETTEZ06]

Ok I'm looking for a heavy duty power strip from Best Buy and they have many to choose from. I have thought about getting a UPS with AVR but they
a) cost too much
b) don't need backup power
c) don't sell any large enough for 1000 Watts at Best Buy

I'll have 1000 Watts worth of equipment hooked up (500 watt PSU in computer, subwoofer draws 80 watts, receiver uses 320 watts, and monitor uses something around 120-130 watts max). I'll have nothing else hooked up and I'm thinking about going Belkin or Monster (Monster seems the way I want to go if I can find the right Joules)

What I need to know is how Joules are converted into Watts. Is there a formula or what. From my research so far, all I can find is Joules is a rate of power while Watts is how much at any given time so technically 10 Joules = 10 watts/second. If that means 10 joules = 10 watts then I'd just need a 1000 or 1100 Joules power strip right?

Help! Thanks

 

[CORVETTEZ06]

ok i think i found something that might be true:

Joules might not be how much you can hook up but how much of a surge would it take to kill it and make it fail... can anybody back that up?

 

[Elledan]

1 Watt = 1 J s^-1

Quoted from the Oxford Dictionary:

watt - the SI unit of power, equivalent to one joule per second, corresponding to the rate of energy in an electric circuit where the potential difference is one volt and the current one ampere.

 

[larrymoencurly]

While the joule rating indicates how much surge energy can be blocked, I'm skeptical about advertised joule ratings because the MOVs found in many surge protectors are smaller than MOVs sold separately with lower joule ratings.

 

[Ice Czar]

as larrymoencurly mentioned MOV ratings are often questionable
MOV in general are questionable as well when you get right down to it

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=890308

"If P.T. Barnum were alive today... he'd be selling surge suppressors"- UL Technician


next as far as needing 1000 Watts
well a 500 watt supply doesnt draw 500 watts AC unless there is that much DC draw placed on it, and it wouldnt need that all the time anyway.
of course actually figuring out your real draw requirements isnt quite as simple as adding up components but you can ballpark it.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=890652
making efficiency guesses and worse case senerio draw estimates


and as mentioned joule ratings have nothing to do with capacity
a surge suppressor will have a Input Voltage thats typically available
as well as a Output Amperage Capacity

a 15A 110V AC circuit works out to 1650 Watts (the likely circuit in your room and possibly also in other rooms of the house, mapping which outlets are on the same circuit is a good idea)

110VAC x 15A = 1650W , 115VAC x 15A = 1725W , 120VAC x 15A = 1800W
(a typical house circuit in America being rated 110>120VAC and a typical fuse being at 15A)

 

[CORVETTEZ06]

Okay I understand quite a few things more.

I ended up just buying a Belkin 2950 Joule rated surge protector for 50 bucks. From my research it's just about the best "surgemaster" that they sell. The next best thing would be a UPS. From what I understand from my uncle, manager of a Magnolia Hi-Fi, is "There is a manufacture in Taiwan that sells the guts of these to numerous manufactures. Thus making them really all the same, but when you read the specs, they all have different joules ratings." quoted from an e-mail from him recently. I could bet that Belkin wouldn't be of that group but I may be wrong. Anyways I got this power strip because it had a whole lot more features than the Monster for the same price. The monster was 900 joules, this is 2950. The monster had only cable/satilite protection (which I don't need), this has phone and ethernet cable protection. Monster's all in the name I think.

Anyways last comments?

*Edit* By the way, I do understand that my power supply in the computer doesn't use 500 watts 100% of the time. It can have 500 watts readily availible to the computer if it draws that much power but again, I don't even have a computer of that kind of power. Just have:

AMD64 3000+, 6600GT AGP, 2x hard drives (1x 7200 rpm, 1x10000 rpm), 1x dvd-rw, hard drive cooler for the raptor, fan controller, audigy 2 zs, cold cathodes (which aren't really all that cold, but warm hehe), multiple fans (8 fans outside of the PSU)... Every USB port (4) is in use.

 

[Ice Czar]

Anyways last comments?

if the lights dim in your house on a regular basis
or if the circuit its on is on the same as say the kitchen or laundry (big amp draw motors starting up regularly)
replace it again in about one to 2 years, otherwise replace it in 2 to 3 years

MOVs wear out

 

[BossNoodleKaboodle]

AVR UPS's dont seem to do anything til they hit the threshold high or low voltage. Monster Power is good stuff and so is Brick Wall but you're looking at a lot for good protection, but you can get something with a good "damaged equipment" warranty pretty cheap. Monster's low-end stuff is pretty generic, but their higher end stuff seems to be high quality. If you got really crappy power your computer and home theatre will suffer if they don't have a good power condom. Your computer uses about 300W at load by my calculations, which are probably wrong

 

[CORVETTEZ06]

Highly agree... Monster Cable is good stuff if you spend $1000+. My uncle has their 1500 dollar unit and it filters out just about everything in it and shows the voltage on a red LED lighted screen. No doubt it's good. But I also forgot to mention this Belkin has an "unlimited connected equipment warranty" and has "lifetime product warranty". It also came with a 6' CAT5 patch cord as well. And it has a 75dB noise filter on it which it says the higher the number, the more noise filtering and I remember seeing others around this price at like 35ish...