What is a power conditioner?
The term power conditioner has a very loose definition in the industry. We define a power conditioner as anything that is used to improve power quality.
The term power conditioner has a very loose definition in the industry. We define a power conditioner as anything that is used to improve power quality.
Series mode surge protectors use a large, carefully designed inductor in the hot or live circuit and other circuitry to roll off high frequency / high rate of change transients. The technology was developed and patented by Jack Hartford of ZeroSurge and is licensed by a small number of other companies who know what they […]
Shunt mode surge protectors are typically based on circuits that contain metal oxide varistor (MOVs) which, under normal operating voltages, act as an open circuit and allow no current to flow through them. The MOVs will start to conduct should the voltage level rise above the clamping voltage of the MOVs (i.e. a surge condition), […]
A whole house surge protector is a device connected at your service panel that provides protection from ‘big’ surges such as lightning strikes. Most residential houses are supplied with two 120V legs and so a whole house surge suppressor designed for such an installation would typically have ‘four mode’ protection: live 1-neutral, live 1-ground, live […]
UL1449 3rd Edition is the UL’s Standard for Safety for Surge Protective Devices (SPDs). All surge protectors should be UL listed for safety purposes. UL listed devices undergo a number of tests to ensure they do not create any shock or fire hazards throughout their working life. UL 1449 defines four types of SPDs. The […]
Simply put, a surge protective device (SPD) is a device designed to protect against damaging and dangerous short, high voltage transients that are created by devices outside or inside the home or studio. There are many different protection mechanisms that are used in surge protectors. The principal ones being voltage breakdown (e.g. gas discharge, voltage […]
We recently spent some serious research & development time developing what could be called the Acoustic Frontiers approach to power and grounding for audio, home theater and studios.
Here are some of the juicy topics covered on our power pages: