Power Surge Protection

[Howdy Doody Time]

I live out in the sticks in Rural Thailand. My studio Has 12 x 240V wall outlets mainly situated at the back of a long bench where all my gear lives. The local power supply company interrupts the supply on a fairly regular and unannounced basis, mostly for periods of between 3 and 15 seconds, though sometimes after a storm one hears a loud bang somewhere in the distance followed immediately by a blackout lasting a couple of hours. To date, victims of these outages include an ASUS Laptop computer, a new electric hob (which blew a 20 Amp fuse and blew the replacement too - I bought a new Gas Hob instead) and finally the Hot Water Heater, which I haven't replaced as I discovered cold showers are nice in this climate. I am TERRIFIED my twin RADAR units will be next, or my two new Apple Silicon Laptops, or come to think of it just about any item of studio equipment. I Have 8 (eight) UPS's directly connected to all the studio gear and a lot of unused wall outlets which I regard as poisonous to my gear. I would like to somehow install a gadget before the Consumer Unit which would deal with any surges the Provincial Electricity Supply throws at me. But I have no idea what would be best, adverts are biased or misleading or ambiguous, and that's fair enough, but there will be someone here on SOS that could suggest a remedy. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks!

[Hugh Robjohns]

I would like to somehow install a gadget before the Consumer Unit which would deal with any surges the Provincial Electricity Supply throws at me. But I have no idea what would be best, adverts are biased or misleading or ambiguous, and that's fair enough, but there will be someone here on SOS that could suggest a remedy. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks!

Surge protection is unlikely to be effective. It obviously wouldn't cover gaps, and most surge-protection devices either die or degrade significantly with each operation, so quickly offer no protection at all if provoked frequently.

The only real solution in this kind of situation is to use (multiple) on-line UPS devices so that you are, in effect, generating your own local constant sine-wave electricity.

A single UPS to power the entire house would be prohibitively expensive for most people — although you could achieve something similar using lots of solar panels, a large storage battery and all the relevant control, inverter and switch gear... But we're talking tens of thousands (at UK prices). At least you'd have reliable sun light all year, and you could live entirely off-grid and not have to worry about local mains supply glitches at all.

[Howdy Doody Time]

Thanks, that clarifies my thoughts, and confirms my multiple UPS usage is not a bad idea. I've seen 'Power banks' advertised which I will look at, I think they can be charged overnight and used via inverters during the day. I keep reading that solar panels are not what they seem, being either very expensive, or if inexpensive are poorly designed with cheap components. Lithium batteries seem a bit cheaper than they were. Meanwhile multiple UPS!

[Jimmy B]

Be aware that there are (at least) two kinds of UPS. Hugh specifically recommended ONLINE UPS. These constantly power the load from a battery and inverter, while the battery is continuously charged from the power grid, when it is available. An offline UPS, on the other hand, basically sits there on standby until the power grid fails, at which point it cuts in. This is unlikely to offer as much protection from power surges. An online UPS is more expensive than an offline UPS.
As Hugh also implied, your power grid sounds as if it is so far from being fit for purpose that the safest solution would be not to use it to power anything of value. Here in the UK, solar panels are viewed as relatively reliable and inexpensive, while lithium-ion power banks with inverters are starting to become mainstream.
If you could arrange your house wiring so that your studio was only connected to such a combination, saving the power grid for high current applications such as air conditioning and cookers, it would appear to offer the safest option. Of course, it depends on how much you want to spend.

[Howdy Doody Time]

Thanks. Luckily I do employ the online variety of UPS (I was unaware of anything else) I took the ASUS to a local dealer&Repair shop yesterday who sell ASUS and they are looking at it. While I was there one of their guys was replacing batteries in APC and Zircon UPS's which is a service they offer, so that's duly noted. It's up to me now to make sure every item of studio equipment is connected only to a UPS and Never directly to the mains. Thanks again SOS for straightening me out on this subject, particularly with regard to reliability of 'surge protectors', or as Dr. Hugh indicates, the unreliability of them.

[Hugh Robjohns]

There are several variations on the UPS theme, and different manufacturers have different names for them... but APC offer three types:

Standby UPS is the commonest arrangement where a battery powers an inverter and the load is switched across only if the supply fails. The incoming mains may be filtered somewhat, but won't be regulated. The inverter output may be sinewave, but is more often a crude stepped waveform which can cause issues with computer-based equipment.

Line Interactive means the battery inverter is always connected to the output, charging the battery when mains is available and instantly powering the output if the mains disappears. This arrangement provides automatic mains voltage regulation, additional mains supply filtering, and reduced switching transients compared to a standard Standby UPS...

Online UPS uses a double conversion setup such that the output is derived directly from the battery at all times.