Today's electrical equipment is more useful and capable than ever, but it is also more sensitive than ever. This is particularly true for equipment, such as computers and televisions, that contains sensitive microchips. There's nothing worse than having a power surge in your home take out your entire computer entertainment system--but it does happen.

Protecting Your Electronics

The fuse box that runs into your home does provide a certain level of protection against surges, but typically not enough. The problem is that your main fuse box is intended to react to strong surges. Sometimes it will let a weak surge through that is still strong enough to damage your more sensitive electrical equipment.

The best way to protect your electronics is to always make sure they are plugged in through some sort of current sensing outlet. The most common type of equipment like this is the current sensing power strip. These power strips have a fuse built into them that will instantly shut the power off if it senses a power surge.

If you ever have a situation where your power strip shuts off, the best thing to do is wait a bit before turning it back on. When you are ready, check to see if the strip has a fuse popping out of it, or some other button that needs to be reset. In many cases there is a physical switch that needs to be reset by hand before the power strip will work again.