Reply To: JCCC3 – Questions for the Site Inspection Cruise?
Anything that can take such a wide range of input voltages will be a switcher. (They work by sending pulses of current through a transformer; if the voltage is higher, they just send fewer pulses to compensate.) Laptop power supplies are usually switchers.
Surge protectors are still useful to catch the really big, sharp spikes, such as those caused by lightning; they might also help if there’s a big electric motor on the same circuit and it causes a huge inductive surge when it starts up. But a switching power supply will filter out any surge that’s within its rated input range.