Surge/Power Protection 101
(Explained Simply)

First of all, I want to give a short apology to all for taking so long to sit down and write this tutorial. My excuse is that it's summer-I'm putting in a pool-the dog's sick etc etc. Anyways, sorry about that!

This months tutorial is going to touch briefly on surge/power protection and what you can do to make sure that you are as protected as you can be from construction brownouts, people hitting power poles (with their cars) and business neighbors who use incredible amounts of electricity. Your phone system has a processor whose function is to interpret what it means when you press line 1 or hit the hold button or do almost anything with your phone. You can consider this processor as the "engine" of your system, as well as the most important and EXPENSIVE part. When it comes to this little "engine", unlike most PC's, it is very reliable as long as you make sure, as best you can, that it receives good clean electricity.

Good electricity-that comes out of the wall outlet, automatically-right? Wrong. If there's a construction zone out there somewhere near your firm, or a machine shop, car wash or anything that uses lots of power, it will affect your system in a way that you won't like. By using at least some of the devices that I'll talk about next, you can easily double or triple the life of your processor and phone system.

OK, So what do I do?
At a minimum, buy a GOOD surge protector. Spend at least $100. Surge protectors are designed to stop excess voltage (too much power) from getting to your system. Cheap ones-less than $50 still work, but by the time that most of them actually "shut off" the power, your system will already be toast.

A better plan.....
Buy a surge protector and a UPS. UPS-Uninterruptible Power Supply. Just like the name says, a "supply" of power that won't be "interrupted" by sudden power LOSS. If you are the victim of brownouts, if your lights flicker or if you EVER have or hear electric appliances in your office momentarily slow down, GET A UPS!!!! UPS' are basically battery-backups. If your power hiccups or goes down, whatever is plugged into the UPS should continue working. Consult with your vendor in order to determine which UPS will suit your needs best. (In other words, which UPS is big enough for your system).

The BEST plan!
Buy a surge protector, a UPS and a line conditioner. Line conditioners do just that, they "condition" the power coming out of your wall outlet to a large degree, making it very clean, filtering out noise and other things that are bad for your processor. The three devices I've spoken of will cost a combined $600 to $2000, depending on what you buy and where you buy it. The larger your system the more that this stuff costs, generally. Taken together, these three things will definitely clean up all but the most severe power problems.

Keep in mind that power problems and lightning strikes are NEVER completely controllable. If, for whatever reason, you have a really severe surge, even if you have the very best surge protection available, it will probably still knock out your phone system. However, most surges are relatively small and do their real damage over time.

We hope our tutorial helps you, and if we can be of further assistance or if you have a problem you just can't seem to get remedied, call or email us at tellearn.com, our advice is good and you can't beat our price, because it's FREE!!

Chris Walsh,
Telephone System Learning Seminars,
tellearn.com
(800) 509-3666