It is the age of electronics, where no one can do without these devices. Refrigerators to keep food and drinks cold and fresh, microwave ovens to warm and cook delicacies, air conditioners to keep you cool, water heaters to bring you soothing water during the winters, televisions to keep you entertained and informed – all of these have become a must in every household. And, because they perform so much and so well, you can imagine the amount of circuitry that may go behind making them work! All this circuitry and the elements involved are all very sensitive and expensive.
What makes all this circuitry work? To make the circuitry work, what is required is power – “safe power”. By safe power, we mean that the power that gets into these devices to make the circuitry work should be of the required amount; too less a power won’t make the appliance work, and too high a power will damage the sensitive equipment. But, what if there is suddenly a great surge of power? Can you imagine the havoc it can create!? It may not only damage the appliance, but it may also lead to power failures and shorts. This makes it very important for us to be very careful and pre-planned with things before we install the plugs of our devices into those switches to turn them on. So, what can we do?
Surge protectors – Do they really help?
To keep our devices safe and free from power surges, we need to install surge protectors, which are a great defense against damaging voltage spikes. However, while these surge protectors are good enough to manage against voltage spikes, what about when there is radio frequency interference or electromagnetic interference? This kind of interference disrupts the use of many audio and visual equipment like televisions, cordless telephones, radios, etc. to cause loss of signal, or affect the quality of sound/picture. Such conditions cannot be resolved with the help of surge protectors. This is when power conditioners come to the rescue.
What are power conditioners?
Power conditioners offer valuable protection for components in a variety of electronic devices. They act as a buffer between the outlet and the system, smoothing out voltage fluctuations and radio/electromagnetic interference. These devices were initially used only in industrial sectors and for research and laboratory applications. But, with the advent of many reputed manufacturers of balanced power conditioner in India, like Miracle Electronics, these devices also started finding their way into home and office applications.
Benefits of using a power conditioner
Power conditioners offer a variety of advantages over other similar devices, some of them including –
- Protection against voltage surges through electrical lines, phone lines, LAN connections, and coax TV inputs, which may result in degradation of system performance, or system failure.
- Removal of noise in electrical lines coming from radio stations, TV stations, mobile stations, and high current appliances.
- Correction of fluctuation of voltage and waveform distortions
Types of power conditioners
Passive type filters – These are the least expensive power conditioners that shunt away high frequency noise components through a capacitor to the ground; offering very basic noise reduction capabilities.
Balanced transformers – They are one step above passive type filter models, as they balance AC power feed, and produce noise reduction far better suited for audio and video components. But, they are also larger, heavier, and noisier, and offer only limited power deliver due to damping effect.
AC regenerative type – These are even larger and expensive power conditioners that throw off a lot of heat in operation, but at the same time, they also better address the problems associated with noise in the audio and video spectrum.
