A well designed and installed surge arrester will “short” the inputs and outputs of the equipment for the duration of the applied surge and pass the currents to ground.
To 'short' currents to ground means ALL connections. Shorting must be to every electrical conductor including wall paint, desk, and even anything a mouse cable, ethernet, or human might touch. An entire room must be 'shorted'.
Adjacent protectors do not claim to protect from destructive surges. It is virtually impossible (or extremely expensive) to 'short' everything together. Or that must be done when the room is constructed.
Same 'shorting; is accomplished easily if a protector connects every incoming wire to ground where all wires enter the building. Then an entire building, in essence, is 'shorted' to earth.
Ground on a receptacle clearly is not earth ground. Impedance makes that obvious. A 'shunt to earth' must be before a potentially destructive current enters. That is how it was done over 100 years ago anywhere that surge damage could not happen. That is what effective protectors have done all over the world for over 100 years.
A product sold in Singapore, that successfully does this Astrophobe type protection, disconnects a phone line when lightning is detected. But also connects lightning low impedance (ie less than 3 meters) to earth ground. Earth ground does the protection. Since protection is always about where hundreds of thousands of joules dissipate. Even all phone conversations and internet connections are not interrupted since a disconnect and connection to earth need only be milliseconds. (spipie - unlike Astrophobe, your conversation is not interrupted.) Then no surge current enters. But that means a disconnecting/connecting switch must be on a first floor or basement so that the phone line can connect low impedance (ie less than 3 meters) to the single point earth ground. Since protection is always defined by what harmlessly absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules - earth ground. And the low impedance (ie wire has no sharp bends) connection. Always.
Disconnecting without making a low impedance (ie less than 3 meter) connection to single point earth ground was never effective protection. Plug-in protectors or the Astrophobe do not claim to provide effective protection. Neither will discuss where hundreds of thousands of joules are harmlessly absorbed. Effective solution proven by over 100 years of science, experience, and even Ben Franklin's lightning rod in 1752 - a protector is only as effective as its earth ground.
An essential part of that protection is separation between protector and appliance. Since a long wire (ie 10+ meters) between protector and appliance is increased impedance - increases protection. Of course, if a connection to earth does not exist, then that increased impedance does virtually no protection. If a surge is properly earthed BEFORE entering a building, then long wires inside effectively increase protection. That is only when *the* most critical component in every protection system - single point earth ground - is implemented. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground. That has never changed no matter what 'magic box' providers claim.
So that everything inside the room (including wall paint, desktop, and human) is part of the protection system. Then that surge current must be connected to single point earth ground BEFORE entering a building. A protector (all of them) are only as effective as the one item that actually does the protection - that actually absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules - single point earth ground. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground. That has never changed.
Protection even from direct lightning strikes has been so well proven and so effective that damage is often traceable to human mistake.
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