I've been following these forums on surge protection and power conditioning for a while and, being a newbee, I'm still pretty confused.

I've had Sola industrial power conditioner sitting idle in my garage for 10 years. I have model 63-23-215-8. Follow this link for specs:
http://www.sola-hevi-duty.com/products/powerconditioning/mcr_hard.htm

Now that I'm planning on moving out of my condo and into a house, I'm wondering if installing this thing would be of any use to me. I'm not much of an electrician so stick to layman's terms. If you had one of these given to you, what would you do with it?

(I also have a smaller version, but I have to dig it out to find the part number so let's just talk about the one above for now.)

I thiok you should hire a professional.

If you've already got it handy, I'd say it would be worthwhile having installed, but I do agree with Hullguy: give an electrician a call and let him hook it up for you.

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gonk -- 950 Review | LFM-1 Review | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | Saloon Links

Ferroresonant voltage regulators like the Sola one (aka constant voltage transformers) are a very bad idea for a home theater setup. They generate large amounts of harmonic distortion on the AC waveform they output and produce a strong electromagnetic field that can cause hum in any nearby components. Don't even think of using it.

What you need is a good power line filter with surge protection and the TrippLite "Isobar" are excellent ones that are used in industry, recording studios, and other critical situations. Since they don't have the marketing baggage of consumer units, they cost less and are of throughly professional quality.

Give that Sola thing to the nearest steel mill.

First off, if I were to have this thing insatlled it would certainly be done by a licensed electrician.

Soundhound, thanks for your input. What exactly would be the result of "harmonic distortion on the AC waveform"?

You mention the magnetic field causing a hum in nearby components. What do you mean by "nearby"? If the Sola was installed in the basement, do you think it could cause hum as far away as 10, 20, or 50 feet?

I'll believe you when you say the Sola would be a very bad idea for home theater. Can you think of any other use it have around the house? This thing is $1400 retail and around $1000 for the little one. Granted, I got them for nothing, but it would be tough to just toss 'em into the trash or sell them if I could use them someplace.

Just after I posted, I did another web search and found an interesting tidbit on http://www.naimusa.com/power.html. They say: "Our customers often inquire about the purchase of a power conditioner suitable for a Naim Audio system.

You absolutely do not need one--every power conditioner we know of reduces musical performance dramatically.

Do not be fooled--power conditioners will make your system worse in every case. (A few will make one area a little better while ruining fifty other areas--that is the best case we have seen!)

If the power is dirty, you can't improve it with a power conditioner without taking away some of the remaining quality and punch."

TVSS (transient voltage surge suppressor) or similar whole-house surge protection mounted at the main panel has become fairly inexpensive and offers some good protection for all of your house electronics. In looking at the Sola link, I think soundhound raises an excellent point: that appears to be an industrial product, not a residential product, and industrial power concerns are very different. They are looking at reducing failure rate on large horsepower AC motors and other gear, and the methods used to accomplish that may not be well suited to a residential application.

I also skimmed over Naim's power page, and I do seriously question their recommendations. First, surge protection is valuable, and not just to deal with lightning strikes. Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of what the local news channels have named "Hurricane Elvis," a straightline wind storm that took out power in 3/4 of the Memphis area for several weeks and damaged or destroyed about 1000 power poles. The power surges and sags experienced as the power began to fail in different areas was sufficient to damage unprotected equipment (one of my co-workers lost a VCR, suffered some damage to a TV, and blew a fuse in a $3000 preamp). I had my system on a Panamax MAX5100 and experienced no problems, although my microwave's display did take a hit and has never entirely recovered.

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gonk -- 950 Review | LFM-1 Review | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | Saloon Links

>>>What exactly would be the result of "harmonic distortion on the AC waveform"?<<<

Any alteration of the waveform (distortion) is highly undesirable in a sound and video system, especially that introduced by the very equipment that is supposed to "clean up" the waveform. Industrial equipment and computers are nowhere near as sensitive to this type of thing as are video components and audio amplifiers, preamps etc.

I would keep a transformer such as this at least 25 feet away from any audio or video equipment.

Free or not, this Sola unit is not suitable for home theater use. It has very valid uses in other areas, but not here.

The TrippLite "Isobar" units afford just as much surge and EMI/RFI protection as the Sola transformer does. The Sola just regulates the voltage, which is not really necessary in a home application unless you have really bad power. If you do, then there are other regeneration options that are far better than ferroresonant transformers.

Good info guys.

These are industrial units (never been used). Too bad they have no residential use. Maybe I'm about to experience my first eBay auction as a seller!