I am installing a flat panel tv, on the same circuit, that has a window ac on it. What would be my best option as far as a surge protection outlet, not stip.

You really need a strip, with a coax port. Surges on TVs are usually reconciling the difference between what is coming in on the cable and the power. That also lets you protect VCR,s DVD players and DVRs.

For an outlet at the tv I install these....

http://www.panamax.com/Products/In-Wall/MIW-POWER-PRO.aspx

You may want to check the amperage of the AC, before you install the additional outlet! Why not run another, or to a different circuit?

I take it that this is a plasma type TV?

Them sorts of TV sets don't like voltage sags, the likes of what could happen when the A/C starts up.

With respect to Surge protection, if it is possible, I recommend to all my customers that the whole installation be protected at the panel, it also saves on light bulbs too.
The devices are not hard to fit either.

Mike: (Trumpy)

....Nice graphic!!!!!

The only problem with the panel protector alone is it doesn't do anything to reconcile a ground shift between the TV cable and the power. You have the same problem with the phone line and a modem.

well what we really need is a 780 guy, they seem to understand lightning best through their doctrine

unfortunatly, they're really a scarce breed, methinks they may have been electricians at one time, but evolved themselves to deal with mother nauture

anyways, i did find one once who took his time to translate the mystery of lightning from multi-sylabic jargon down to simpler terms i could grasp...

seems they subscribe to a very similar scenario that we do re; series AIC...

they'll start with addressing the service via a Ufer (which is a code i like because i like watching those concrete guys gears jam...."It's a Ufer"...."You for?....."No, i gotta do a Ufer"....."Me for?what for?")

then i'm told to use mov's>>> next would be the fancy surge breakers>>> then surge receptacle(s)>>> then protective strips with a belden loop

anyways, it'd be nice to hear from a 780 dude here, you just can't use a phone book to get 'em, they're like some sort of cult, look for the pointy ears....

~S~

Go buy a small (350VA or so) UPS. They run $30-50 and most name brand units (APC, Belkin, etc) include surge supression and filtering and will protect against surge, dip, overvoltage, undervoltage, the works, including short power failures, and catv protection. The first thing I did when I bought my HDTV was throw it on a UPS! Don't forget to plug your DVR into it, too, so that a storm won't mean your favorite shows aren't recorded

The best approach to lightning protection is a tiered approach, with TVSS (or SPDs if you're using a new copy of NEC) at each point in the distribution. The most critical point is at the service entrance, as the power lines are WAY more likely to get struck by lightning than your house, and the path to ground offers the least resistance here, and thus the most effective surge clearing. For most people, a TVSS in the panel will suffice. It doesn't matter how they're packaged, as they all use the same MOVs. Considerable voltages can be induced on house wiring from a near miss, and high-voltages will still come through the house TVSS, so secondary surge supressors are recommended at computer/AV equipment, too.

If you don't do anything about the TV cable and phone line you have just made your TV or PC the surge protection device. Steve is right. It is important to stop as much as you can at the service entrance and be sure everyone is using the same ground electrode system. Then use a strip that incorporates all inputs to each piece of equipment at the point of use. I also like to snap ferrite beads on the signal lines and bond the hell out of stuff.
That may seem like overkill to people who don't have many thunderstorms but it is what we figured out here in SW Florida where a storm is a daily thing for most of the summer.
I had a thousand customers that could not turn off their computers and unplug them every afternoon. We made our lightning calls go from, several a day to virtually zero using these techniques.

I also like to snap ferrite beads on the signal lines and bond the hell out of stuff.

oh i quite agree on bonding anything that doesn't move Greg, but just what is a 'ferrite bead'? seems i've missed this little jem....

~S~

I agree 1000% with Greg Fretwell. Surges can come in many different forms and paths. The best protection is to protect against all forms of surges.

Ideally, all the metallic services should enter the building together and be solidly grounded together at that entrance. With anything less, consider the point-of-use protector mandatory when more than one kind of service (power is one, cable is another) is connected. Even if you have the proper entrance protection and it is working effectively, the point-of-use protector is still a plus, especially if you have a transient heavy load device on the same circuit.

The ferrite bead is very useful to protect against common mode induced surges on signal lines. Years ago I had a stereo system which I had unplugged for a coming storm damaged by that storm anyway. It induced a surge in the speaker leads and destroyed the final transistors in the amplifier, as well as the tweeter coils in the speakers (about 40% of the coil wire was melted).

A ferrite bead is an inductive choke that fits around a signal cable. It can be effective against high frequency common mode surges, such as those induced by lightning nearby. They were usually on the video cable of a CRT monitor because the CRTs themselves could be a surge of surge that could damage a computer (by an arc in the HV section). They can be useful in general on all kinds of connections, though less so in shielded cables.

Stop as much as you can at the entrance. No means of protection can stop 100% in part because surges can be either differential mode, or common mode, or some combination of both. The ground bond in the panel will divert a lot of a surge to ground (the shorter and straighter the wire to the grounding electrode, the more surge energy that can be diverted). But you still end up with a combination mode surge. A surge protector that can work for phase wires helps even more.

Slow rise time surges (the most common) are easily protected against by just making sure that there are no voltage differences between metallic services. Fast rise time surges (less common, but can happen with close lightning strikes) can still cause damage even if reconciled by a point-of-use protector. That's where filtering becomes useful (premium power strips, for example). But there's even a limit to that because you can't use such filtering on the cable TV coax (fiber will help, but is best if it is all the way to the TV, which the providers of these services are not doing, yet).