Clean Power

When dad brings home a brand new TV on Sunday afternoon that he just picked up from Ultimate Electronic's going out of business sale, he usually doesn't think twice when plugs the power cord into the wall for the first time. Most electronic consumers are not aware of the 'unclean', or dirty power delivered to consumers,  or the fact that it can and will be very harmful to your electronics.

The electrical companies won't tell you that they really don't give a rat's ass what kind of power is delivered to your house.  As long as they get close enough to 120V+/-10V, that's good enough for them.  I am sure most of us have randomly turned on our TV or some other electronics to find it exploding or simply not working.  Ever seen the lights dim when the refrigerator turns on?  These are all example of dirty power that can harm electronics.  Below is a plot of clean and dirty power constancy.  Granted the plots have not units, what they are really illustrating is the RMS (root mean square) power delivered to a device.

Below is a video (courtesy of Monster Power) that explains exactly what is going on with electrical power.

The point is, it is essential to provide & protect your electronic devices with surge protection, noise filters, isolation, and voltage stabilization.  This protection significantly increases the longevity of your electronics as well as their overall performance.  I have personal experience with failed equipment that was not protected.  Even after one of my pieces of electrical equipment had failed on standard power, I was able to power it with clean power and the device started working again just because it had the correct power.  

Moral of the story: If you have any respect for your equipment, you should think twice about plugging it into any random outlet.