What is surge protection?
Is it a good idea for me to use an extension lead (with four to six sockets) with built in surge protection?
I mean, what exactly does surge protection do? I’m concerned that it has nothing to do with me drawing too much power from the appliances that I’ve plugged into the sockets. I think it might work the other way and just protect a surge from the wall socket to my appliances…
The other option I have is just to use a (cheaper) standard extension lead with no surge protection.
A power surge, or transient voltage, is an increase in voltage significantly above the designated level in a flow of electricity. In normal household and office wiring in the United States, the standard voltage is 120 volts. If the voltage rises above 120 volts, there is a problem, and a surge protector helps to prevent that problem from destroying your computer.
To understand the problem, it is helpful to understand something about voltage. Voltage is a measure of a difference in electric potential energy. Electric current travels from point to point because there is a greater electric potential energy on one end of the wire than there is on the other end. This is the same sort of principle that makes water under pressure flow out of a hose — higher pressure on one end of the hose pushes water toward an area of lower pressure. You can think of voltage as a measure of electrical pressure.