Excellent information on surges and surge protection is at:
http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lhm/IEEE_Guide.pdf
- "How to protect your house and its contents from lightning: IEEE guide for surge protection of equipment connected to AC power and communication circuits" published by the IEEE (the IEEE is a major organization of electrical and electronic engineers).
And also:
http://www.eeel.nist.gov/817/pubs/spd-anthology/files/Surges happen!.pdf
- "NIST recommended practice guide: Surges Happen!: how to protect the appliances in your home" published by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology
The IEEE surge guide is aimed at people with some technical background (which probably includes about everyone here).
The information in these guides, written by engineers that research and design protection, is rather different from the other sources in this thread. For instance, surges that originate in a house are not likely a problem.
Service panel protectors are a real good idea.
But from the NIST guide:
"Q - Will a surge protector installed at the service entrance be sufficient for the whole house?
A - There are two answers to than question: Yes for one-link appliances [electronic equipment], No for two-link appliances [equipment connected to power AND phone or cable or....]. Since most homes today have some kind of two-link appliances, the prudent answer to the question would be NO - but that does not mean that a surge protector installed at the service entrance is useless."
Service panel protectors are very likely to protect anything connected only to power wires from a very near very strong lightning strike. The NIST surge guide suggests most equipment damage is from high voltage between power and signal wires. Serrvice panel protectors may or may not protect equipment that also has a connection like phone or cable.
The author of the NIST surge guide has written "In fact, the major cause of [surge protector] failures is a temporary overvoltage, rather than an unusually large surge." Temporary overvoltage would be, for instance, crossed power wires.
Complete nonsense. Some even have protected equipment warranties.
Both the IEEE and NIST surge guides say plug-in protectors are effective.
The author of the NIST surge guide looked at the amount of energy that could make it to a plug-in protector, even with a very near very strong strike to utility wires. The energy is surprisingly small. (There are a couple reasons, if anyone is interested.) A plug-in protector, wired correctly (as below), is likely to protect from even a very near very strong strike.
The IEEE surge guide explains how plug-in protectors work starting page 30. It is not primarily by earthing a surge. They work primarily by limiting the voltage from each wire (power and signal) to the ground at the protector. The voltage between the wires going to the protected equipment is safe for the protected equipment.
When using a plug-in protector all interconnected equipment needs to be connected to the same protector. External connections, like coax also must go through the protector.
It is a miracle for westom because he can not understand how plug-in protectors work, explained in the IEEE surge guide starting page 30.
Nope.
Plug-in protectors do not work primarily by earthing surges. As the IEEE surge guide explains, earthing occurs elsewhere in the system.
I would not worry about chargers on a plug-in surge protector or protected by a whole house surge protector.