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When nothing is connected, the capacitors used to smooth power spikes will leak some current and draw power that way
Surge protectors don’t use capacitors.
They use a variable resistance circuit- usually metal oxide varistors. When the supply is at the correct voltage, it just goes through them. When it’s too high (a surge,) the resistance increases and excess voltage is sent out a fork to ground
Oh! Yeah that makes sense... idk why I thought they mainly used a capacitive circuit. So those varistors must dissipate power in normal operation right?
Varistors change their resistance loads depending on the voltage coming into it. the hot wire is connected to ground, and when in normal voltages, they're very high resistance. electricty follows the path of least resistance- similar to water flowing down hill.
so, when the voltage is normal, the power goes into the plugs does it's thing. when a surge hits, the MOV's loose resistance with the increased voltage, letting it flow into the ground wire instead. This brings the voltage going down the hot wire to normal, until the MOV's go back to being highly resistive, and normal power.
basically, think of it as being a water wheel, when the flow of water is 'normal', the sluice gates are open and the water goes down the sluice driving the wheel. when there's a lot of water coing in, though it spills out and doesn't make the wheel spin too fast.
Side note, if you ever want to get real mad about paying money for something open up a cheap surge protector or power conditioner 😹
Just empty shell with low grade solder and cheap wiring?
That would be a “power strip”- but the surge protectors do have rather little in them all the same. The varistors are where the magic is- and they’re basically about the size of a grape. Or a coin.
switched off? no. that breaks the circuit, no power, no usage. it's basically the same as unplugging it from the wall. if nothing is connected to them, many surge protectors have a small indicator light that shows the surge protector is on. that's about the only power use being used if nothing is plugged in and drawing power.
you might be confusing turning the surge protector off itself, vs the devices it's connected to- many of which will rather enter a standby mode which still draws some power. (for example, microwave ovens will draw some power continuously so that they're always ready, even if they're not always drawing enough power to cook food.)
A surge protector (and the outlet it's plugged into,) will only draw enough power to meet it's demand; even if the supplied power is potentially greater- for example, computer power supplies. A PC with a 60w power supply will operate quite happily with a 120w power supply.
That’s good to know, so I actually don’t need to physically unplug the power strip to trim down the bill. I’ve been doing it wrong for a while
Well, you can keep doing it that way, if you want. It's still a good idea if you get surges during storms or something; mind. for both the protector and whatever its protecting. but as far as power usage goes, yeah, you can just flip the switch.
As I type this it actually is thundering and raining torrentially here in the PNW- and I live in one of the tallest apartment buildings in my neighborhood
Probably fine. Cities are usually very well protected; including at the circuit breakers
In any case… stay safe!
Surely you thought of this, but a lot of surge protectors have (used to have?) a battery backup for short outages. Keeps the PC on so you can save your data.
Those are not surge protectors, but uninterruptible power supplies- most of which will have a surge protection circuit, mind.
Edit: for comparison, this is a UPS:
It weighs 5 pounds, and is about the size of a shoe box. The batteries don’t provide surge protection- instead those use a circuit to effectively trickle charge and maintain the battery. If normal power is lost, that circuit flips over to discharging the battery.
Ah I was aware they made surge protectors without battery backup, but I wrongly thought they were both just 'surge protectors' and wondered if OP somehow left out that his had a battery backup.
It didn't used to be this way, but modern power adaptors are required to implement standby power:
In the past, standby power was largely a non-issue for users, electricity providers, manufacturers, and government regulators. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, awareness of the issue grew and it became an important consideration for all parties. Up to the middle of the decade, standby power was often several watts or even tens of watts per appliance. By 2010, regulations were in place in most developed countries restricting standby power of devices sold to one watt (and half that from 2013).
Maybe they're actually listening to us.
Do they draw power when switched off completely???
Do they draw power when switched off completely???
Nope. so that rocker switch physically breaks the connection between the wall socket and whatever is plugged into it's sockets. as far as power consumption goes, it's basically identical to unplugging from the wall.
Maybe they’re actually listening to us.
Do... you know about your cell phone? they don't need to but bugs in surge protectors because we so very handily take the world's greatest spying device with us everywhere we go. willingly. without a second though.
So true 😁 George Orwell was a bit off on the timing and missed the scale of surveillance by a mile, but got the idea spot on.
I wrote that on my phone. If i blink three times, they got to me.
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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