Surge protection question

Hello, I have been reading some past entries regarding how to protect laptops, ipods, cameras etc. from the frequent electrical spikes in India. Many recommended the Belkin mastercube for surge protection. Silly question but, other than a plug adapter do you need anything else to make this work given India is on 220V vs. 120V?

All you need is the plug adaptor. We did the same thing on our recent trip... just made it way more convenient to recharge everything at once. Just make sure that the hotel doesnt turn off the power to your room when you arent in there. Several hotels did that and we only discovered it when we went out while charging our camera thinking we would kill some time while the camera charges.

In most of the hotels I stayed at, you had to insert the key/key fob into a slot by the door which enables power to your room.

The way I found around this was to either use the Fridge socket, which was powered all the time, or insert a piece of plastic into the slot, hence keeping power on.

Yeah, we did a similar thing with switches like that. Insert some useless card (in their mind... like AAA or an insurance card) and that will usually keep the power flowing. (barring load-shedding of course!)

I know a certain IM moderator with a story about hotel room power. And a fridge.

Go on Nick .... spill the beans !!!

Wasn't me....

One of my favourite this-is-india-we-are-like-this-only stories.

Thanks everyone! It's great to be able to ask those with experience I think I just about (finally) have all this electrity stuff figured out. Hopefully I won't have any electronic casualties once I arrive!

I'm taking a laptop and external hard disk to India. In past I gave one laptop to my nephew in India and due to power fluctuations there its power adapter was burnt.

Will a surge-protector bought from Canada work in India? If so which one (brand, model)? I'm in Vancouver so if you know of any particular store that carries them would be awesome.

Thanks.

ps: Earlier i posted this in electronics forum but seems that nobody checks that forum. I didn't get any response there.

What's your voltage in Canada? Ours is 220. If yours is the same as USA (110) then don't buy there; buy here.

Anyway...

We have APC and other, including local, makes of UPS, with surge protection, voltage control and stuff, built in. We also have stabilisers which are designed and built for the local market.

If your nephew is static, rather than travelling, I'd suggest a small UPS with those feature. The "110-240" on the power supplies, and the battery in the laptop, makes us think a UPS might be unnecessary, but it is a good thing to have, between one's computer and a very dirty power supply.

But --- buy here, do not carry such a weight from there.

All of my gadgets have power supplies rated 100-260V AC, which is pretty standard for better laptops, cameras etc. Out in the boonies in India you can get surges up to 400V (not kidding), so a UPS or inverter is essential. In the cities I've never had a problem, but I sure would never leave something charging while I was out of the room - might not be a hotel there when you come back! India is also a good place to use a portable solar charger.

Another reason to buy here...

The outlets will be Indian-type sockets.

In the mahanagar my relations always keep a line conditioner for the frig. I have an extremely small laptop surge protector even in the US. One lightening strike (or power surge from rural electrification) ruins your whole day..

In Toronto's Little India on Gerrard street there is a shop run by a Punjabi gentleman called 'House of 220'. He is quite knowledgeable on sourcing conversion/protection equipment and a call to him might lead you to a good source in the Vancouver area. Worth a try and might save you a bit of running around at the very least.

Edwardseco is on the right track with the surge protector. The fridge stabiliser won't do anything for a laptop. A UPS (or battery charger, batteries and inverter) would only be useful if it contained surge and spike protection. Sure, modern ones do, but the UPS function itself is pretty pointless for a laptop which already has its own built-in.

Comparing 260V with 400V is meaningless when you don't know what the waveforms are. The 260V figure is likely to be r.m.s. which, given a hypothetical pure sinusoidal waveform, has a peak value of 367V (260 times root 2). So that's still clearly less than 400V but the 400V might simply be the peak of a spike on a waveform which has an r.m.s. value of... anything. And your equipment is unlikely to specify how it handles spikes, at least not on the labels in any easily understandable form.

OK, cutting to the chase, what you need is surge and spike protection for your power line and, importantly, your data line too(ethernet/internet connection). And it is likely to cost less than Rs.1000.

APC is probably as good a manufacturer as any. Have a look at www.apc.com. Select the India region. Go to the Products page and look for surge protection. The "SurgeArrest Notebook" looks to be the correct product.

You might be able to buy it in Canada - I don't know for sure - it could be sold as a travel accessory I suppose. Just make sure that whatever you buy is intended for 230V rather than 110V and has protection for the ethernet line.

PS, this won't protect you from a direct lightning strike - you need something special for that!