IN LAST WEEK'S paper, my column was replaced by a box notifying readers that I was on vacation. That was not exactly the truth.
What I've been doing with my time off is moving, which is to vacation what a state prison is to a five-star hotel.
Still, rooting through two decades' worth of electronic detritus, trying figure out what to keep and what to throw out, can be instructive. Here's one lesson I learned quickly: The devices that are supposed to protect your computer and other sensitive equipment against electronic damage might not be doing their job.
In fact, of the two dozen power strips with surge suppressors that I unearthed around our old house as we packed up for the move to a new one, only three still sported lights showing that their protective circuitry was active.
This is particularly important in the summer, when thunderstorms, power outages and brownouts are all too common. All can result in power surges that can fry the insides of your electronic equipment.
So let's talk about how to keep that equipment safe.
First things first. Nothing you can buy in a store will protect your equipment from the awesome electrical power of a lightning strike on your home or power lines nearby.
For that, you'll need a whole-house lightning arrestor - an expensive addition that requires installation by an electrician. If you live in an area of frequent lightning strikes, the best you can probably do is to unplug your computer and other sensitive gadgets while you're away, or while you're home if a thunderstorm is active in your area.
More likely sources of damage are brief increases in voltage - known as transients - that can result from the power returning after a blackout, or from the normal cycling of air conditioners, refrigerators or other appliances that use lots of energy.
Surge suppressors, most often found in power strips, deal with these surges using components known as metallic oxide varistors, or MOVs. These devices divert excess voltage to the circuit's ground wire while allowing normal voltage to pass through to your computer or another protected gadget.
A really high voltage spike may melt everything inside the suppressor, leaving equipment on the downhill side unscathed, in which case the gadget has done its job. But it's more likely that a series of smaller surges will wear out the MOVs inside the power strip over time.
