Surge Protectors

[DarkenReaper57]

As far as I can tell, this sub forum is the most pertinent for this question:

Do you protect your electronics more from power spikes and surges - during, say, a thunderstorm - by flipping the master power ON/OFF switch on a standard power strip w/surge protection to "OFF"?

I understand that the safest thing to do would be to unplug the appliances connected, but just out of curiosity, would flipping the switch to "OFF" help? I'd think that ON/OFF has a moderate effect, since if the electricity goes to like 6000 V on the wall receptacle, the connection would arc across the switch anyway.

Also, how safe is it to use a PC connected to a UPS w/surge protection during a thunderstorm?

 

[Mohonri]

With one caveat, unplugging and switching off will have the same effect on surges/spikes--both will completely eliminate the problem. The caveat is this: if lightning strikes your house, the switch in your surge protector won't do much. If you unplug your equipment, you have a slightly greater chance of saving it, but you have to unplug every cable that goes outside. That includes power, coax, phone lines, whatever else.

 

[webbee]

Yes, it's best to pull the surge protector plug and any other peripherals from the wall socket as Mohonri has noted. Don't forget the cable line if you have cable broadband. I lost a computer to a lightning strike on the cable line, which went right through the modem into the nic/motherboard. Cable company replaced the modem with apologies, but wouldn't do anything about my computer.