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Topic: Fancy surge protectors and power conditioners.. Gimmicks? (Read 43244 times) previous topic - next topic
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Fancy surge protectors and power conditioners.. Gimmicks?

Reply #75 –
One small correction: the only time the PC is powered by AC generated from DC is when the power is out. The rest of the time the AC from the wall is simply passed through.

Additionally, within a laptop the DC from the battery is first converted to high frequency AC, then to assorted regulated DC voltages. Within a desktop the wall AC is first converted to DC and then to high frequency AC and then regulated DC. Why do you care how many times it is converted back and forth anyway?

Fancy surge protectors and power conditioners.. Gimmicks?

Reply #76 –
Quote from: pdq on
Why do you care how many times it is converted back and forth anyway?


Well, I remember hearing somewhere that the more the current is converted, the more problematic it becomes for your gear... For example, it would be a bad idea to plug one UPS to another UPS then to your gear.  I assume that all the conversions of the current would be the reason why this sort of setup would be bad.

Also, I was under the impression that the battery was always supplying power and that it was constantly in a state of charging and discharging itself.  But apparently it really only instantly switches on to batter power when deeded, right?  Suppose I was wrong, but I thought that the speed needed to do that switch at an instant like that over to battery power required a certain level of gear that was only available in the more costly UPS units.  And I thought that all of the cheaper UPS units (I guess, meaning less than about $500) ran constantly on a battery that converted back to AC on the way out. So what you're saying is that I'm wrong about that?

Fancy surge protectors and power conditioners.. Gimmicks?

Reply #77 –
bump