Surge Protection

[Glennbear]

When I rewired my last 1950's era house I added whole house surge protection to the new breaker panel. My current home is circa 2006 and I have been intending to install a similar device here. A couple weeks ago my daughter, who is married to an electronics engineer, told me an electrical storm resulted in the loss of several of their electronic devices.:wconfused: Apparently my SIL has the same procrastination problem I do. :eusa_doh:They now have protection installed and between their bad fortune and the recent rash of wild weather here in VA I finally took action. A trip to the BORG and I came up with a SPD (surge supression device). The device I selected is made by Leviton and is encased in a NEMA class 4X box which makes it suitable for exterior installation. My house has an exterior box adjacent to the meter panel which besides housing a master breaker is also home to the breakers for my well and heat pump. Since these are two things I wanted to especially protect I mounted the SPD to the exterior of that box instead of at my main interior breaker box which also feeds my shop. The current location protects everything and was not a difficult installation. The SPD, two new breakers to feed it, connectors, and a box of watertight flexible conduit cost me less me less than $75.00. As per usual if you are not comfortable working with electricity call an electrician for installation but I strongly recommend installing whole house protection to supplement the surge suppression (protected power strips) which hopefully you are already using on your pricey electronic devices. There are a vast number of SPD's available but this one met my needs and budget . As an added bonus the SPD seems to have eliminated the nuisance trips of my Arc Fault Breakers in the main panel. :wsmile:

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051

 

[RandyJ]

Thanks for the tip, Glenn!
I trust you are doing well?

 

[SteveColes]

Glenn, I don't I would rely on the whole home surge protector. I would still use an individual ones for delicate electronics like tv, stero rcvr and most important computers and monitors. Not one, per piece of equipment, but one per set of related equipment.

 

[Glennbear]

Glenn, I don't I would rely on the whole home surge protector. I would still use an individual ones for delicate electronics like tv, stero rcvr and most important computers and monitors. Not one, per piece of equipment, but one per set of related equipment.

I still have surge protectors for my electronic devices such as media, computers etc. but with dang near every modern appliance having friable circuit boards the whole house unit gives me greater piece of mind and an extra level of protection. :wsmile:

 

[ehpoole]

Steve and Glenn are both correct on the need for both Whole House and Point-of-Use surge protection.

The whole house surge protectors generally start to kick in when either leg exceeds a voltage on the order of 300-500V (depends on the model) on either 120V leg (the normal peak voltage for 120VRMS is 170V). This is adequate to protect transformers and motor windings and to prevent possible fire in the event of a major surge. However, it is not always adequate to protect sensitive electronics. The degree to which sensitive electronics are affected depends heavily on their internal power supply designs and whether or not they include surge protection in the design (many do not because it costs extra).

The Point-of-Use surge protectors (typically outlet strips) are designed to provide a good secondary level of protection for your electronics and should be installed between any valuable electronics and your wall outlet. They typically start clamping at a peak voltage of somewhere between 190-250V, so the spike getting through to your electronics is much reduced over even the Whole House surge protection.

However, even the best Point-of-Use or Whole House protector's performance will be much reduced (even to the point of nearly useless) if your earth ground (grounding rod) is inadequate (too high resistance to earth). This can really become and issue during our dry spells. I have had to install *five* 10ft copper-clad ground rods to deal with our dry clay soil during drought and even that borders on inadequate. Most homes have no more than a single 8ft steel ground rod, which is fine if your soil type is always damp year round or you live near enough to the water table to guarantee moist soil.

For your most valuable (or precious) electronics, the absolute best Point-of-Use surge protection (IMHO) are the Tripp-lite Isobar series outlet strips with the all-metal housing (which helps to contain the rather fiery *explosion* that can occur upon a major strike, something plastic outlet strips cannot contain).

If you are really serious about your surge protection, however, then you must also address surge protection for your telephone, cable, and any antennas as well. You would be surprised as to how much damage lightning entering over any of these unprotected sources can do (up to and including fire and electrocution). For telephone protection, I find Citel Protection gear to be most effective and reliable. For cable and antenna leads, simple 70-90V gas-discharge tubes with coaxial housing connectors are extremely effective.

I lived 25 years of my life in the lightning capital (Tampa Bay Area), so I have acquired a considerable amount of experience addressing lightning and surge protection. Not only did we have to worry about lightning, but with each and every hurricane we had to deal with the extreme voltage spikes that can occur from the collapsing magnetic fields (EMP) in transformers each time a line shorts momentarily or, especially, a transformer explodes from overload/shorting -- which can do every bit as much damage as lightning.

During the late 1980's to early 1990's I actually ran a BBS (the closest thing most of us had to Internet in those days) in rural North Florida and for awhile went through nearly a modem a month until I perfected my surge protection for telephone lines as well.

 

[Sealeveler]

I have a whole house surge protector plus a separate SP for the electronics and a UPS .After a melted compressor in the fridge from lightening I am gun shy.
Tony

 

[Trent Mason]

Lots of good information here. What Ethan mentioned about phone lines, etc is very interesting and often overlooked. We had a bad lightening storm two years ago and I unplugged our desktop PC. However, it still got fried through the internet line.... There after, I started completely unplugging all major electronics during a thunderstorm but have forgotten to as of late. Our TV is really the only thing that I'm concerned about. It is not hooked up to the internet, but has cable through AT&T Uverse. I may need to look into protecting that line as well. Not going to spend the money on entire house protection in a rental property. :nah:

 

[JackLeg]

After replacing a couple control panels on our dishwasher, we had the power company install one on our main panel. No problems since. I do have them on other electronics.

 

[Mt. Gomer]

However, even the best Point-of-Use or Whole House protector's performance will be much reduced (even to the point of nearly useless) if your earth ground (grounding rod) is inadequate (too high resistance to earth). This can really become and issue during our dry spells. I have had to install *five* 10ft copper-clad ground rods to deal with our dry clay soil during drought and even that borders on inadequate. Most homes have no more than a single 8ft steel ground rod, which is fine if your soil type is always damp year round or you live near enough to the water table to guarantee moist soil.

I've never thought about this issue. Seems obvious now that you mention it. How do you test to see if your ground is adequate? Based on your description and the "soil" (basically solid clay) around my house I'm guessing mine isn't....

Thanks,

Travis

 

[merrill77]

There are a wide variety of ways that an electrical disturbance can happen and a equally wide variety of ways that the disturbance can affect your electrical system. You've got to really know what you're doing to design an effective strategy to protect against them all. There is some good advice here, but I'll offer a counterpoint: I had my A/V system protected by a Panamax surge suppressor. Panamax is one of the top-end providers of such equipment. When a tree ~40' from our house got hit by lightning, the ONLY things in the house affected by this were the TV and A/V receiver. Both of these should have been protected by the Panamax. Most of the inputs on the receiver and one of the HDMI inputs on the TV were fried, but both devices were otherwise ok. The receiver was old so I replaced it and the TV was repaired under warranty (I didn't mention the lightning strike). All the other electronics in the house were fine, including multiple computers, another TV, etc. Oh, and the Panamax was completely dead, apparently giving its life in vain.

Take what you will from this case. If you have persistent problems, than it makes sense to try to fix them. But for the ones-in-a-decade lightning strike, I've decided to consider it golden opportunity for new toys! Or maybe I'll rely on my homeowners insurance. Either way, I now have one less electronic gizmo to worry about.

But don't forget to backup your data! At least on something disconnected from the grid and hopefully off-site.

Chris

 

[Glennbear]

I've never thought about this issue. Seems obvious now that you mention it. How do you test to see if your ground is adequate? Based on your description and the "soil" (basically solid clay) around my house I'm guessing mine isn't....

Thanks,

Travis

When I built my shop I added a second copper ground rod at that side of the house connected to the shop panel. I located it near where the downspout discharges and tested with a multimeter and a probe nearby, resistance was low. :wsmile:

 

[ehpoole]

There are a wide variety of ways that an electrical disturbance can happen and a equally wide variety of ways that the disturbance can affect your electrical system. You've got to really know what you're doing to design an effective strategy to protect against them all. There is some good advice here, but I'll offer a counterpoint: I had my A/V system protected by a Panamax surge suppressor. Panamax is one of the top-end providers of such equipment. When a tree ~40' from our house got hit by lightning, the ONLY things in the house affected by this were the TV and A/V receiver. Both of these should have been protected by the Panamax. Most of the inputs on the receiver and one of the HDMI inputs on the TV were fried, but both devices were otherwise ok. The receiver was old so I replaced it and the TV was repaired under warranty (I didn't mention the lightning strike). All the other electronics in the house were fine, including multiple computers, another TV, etc. Oh, and the Panamax was completely dead, apparently giving its life in vain.

Quite literally your equipment was damaged because your surge protector was inadequate for the task (it self destructed). Once the in-built surge protection had sacrificed itself there was no further protection available for your equipment.

A surge protector that has self-destructed can no longer offer any protection unless it was engineered to shunt (as in short) *all* connections to ground upon failure. Most do not do this for the AC and many do not for the accessory (phone and coax) connections. Engineering a specific failure mode is a real challenge under such circumstances, but some do make a genuine effort to do so.

I know Panamax is considered very popular amongst the AV crowed, but I've really found the Tripp-Lite Isobar and Isobar Ultra series protectors to be much better overall (IMHO) and, while not cheap by any measure, much more affordable than Panamax. All point-of-use surge protectors should be backed up by Whole-House protection, which can often absorb the brunt of the worst surges, reducing them to levels more so within the survivable range of your point-of-use protectors.

This is really where defense in layers helps. Nothing is ever a sure-fire guarantee as lightning can literally strike your house and bypass all protection, but a proper defense can offer considerable protection from all but the most extreme instances.

That said, most of these outlet-strip style surge protectors really focus most heavily on protecting the AC side of the equation, their phone line and coax protection generally is not up to quite the same standards. (I know the specs might look good on paper, but if you ever disassemble them you will see the differences in quality amongst various brands and connection types). There is a huge difference between a surge protector that can handle a single massive hit and self-destruct versus one that can handle ten such hits is close succession and survive. Still, there will always be some hits so extreme that even the very best will not survive, but they are rare, fortunately.

 

[Bryan S]

Glenn first off thanks for this post, but I must play devils advocate and say that I am having a hard time accepting that a $50.00 device is good enough. I am certainly not one of av guys that will tell you that you need a $1000.00 power cord for your equipment, they are there. I am also one that knows very little about how surge protection works and what is good enough and one of those fortunate ones that have had little trouble with lighting strikes.

I am not arguing just asking.

 

[ehpoole]

Glenn first off thanks for this post, but I must play devils advocate and say that I am having a hard time accepting that a $50.00 device is good enough. I am certainly not one of av guys that will tell you that you need a $1000.00 power cord for your equipment, they are there. I am also one that knows very little about how surge protection works and what is good enough and one of those fortunate ones that have had little trouble with lighting strikes.

I am not arguing just asking.

There is nothing wrong with asking.

At $50, his surge protector (also available as surge-breakers which literally mount in the place of a double-pole circuit breaker) is a bit on the cheaper side (especially for external mounting), they typically sell for $70-150.

However, it is worth noting that the material costs involved in producing a good surge protector are fairly minimal. They typically consist of 3 or more heavy-duty MOVs or TVSSs and/or gas-discharge tubes. These are remarkably inexpensive devices (especially for the protection they can grant you) so it really comes down to how much the manufacturer wants to charge for the enclosure.

For instance, my first employer (circa 1990) needed about 50 *good* quality outlet strips (something better than the cheaper outlet strips you typically find, though not to the same level as a Tripp-Lite Isobar) for a major roll-out of networked PCs and, we (my boss and I) were dissatisfied with most of the choices on the market at the time. I was able to acquire 50 good quality (all-steel) outlet strips with 6 spec-grade NEMA 5-15R receptacles and a 15A circuit breaker and on/off switch for about $10 each (not plastic strips which can catch fire if they take a serious hit). I then installed 6 heavy-heavy duty MOVs (with minimum turn on voltages of 190-200VAC) into each outlet strip at a cost of about $4/outlet strip. So my final cost was $14/strip and I had a product much better than all but the very best alternatives available on the market at the time (that is, they could survive much larger hits, and many more of them than most). Even with today's much hyped specifications, they would have compared quite favorably. So, you can see that the actual protective devices are not all that expensive. They have gotten even less costly in the 20 years since (at the time they were made in either the US or Japan, nowadays it would probably be China or Philippines).

Now, the moment you place an Audio/Video label on any component you automatically get to charge the-sky-is-the-limit rates. There are people genuinely convinced that a $1000 power cord magically improves their stereo amplifier's output -- even though anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of electronics can trivially disprove the assertion. However, you can rest assured that if *you* spend $1000 on a power cord *you* will hear a difference -- nobody else will, but *you* will.

 

[Glennbear]

Glenn first off thanks for this post, but I must play devils advocate and say that I am having a hard time accepting that a $50.00 device is good enough. I am certainly not one of av guys that will tell you that you need a $1000.00 power cord for your equipment, they are there. I am also one that knows very little about how surge protection works and what is good enough and one of those fortunate ones that have had little trouble with lighting strikes.

I am not arguing just asking.

I am aware that my choice was not the best available but it is definitely a step above being totally unprotected. When finances allow I intend to upgrade. :wsmile:

 

[Tarhead]

There are people genuinely convinced that a $1000 power cord magically improves their stereo amplifier's output -- even though anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of electronics can trivially disprove the assertion. However, you can rest assured that if *you* spend $1000 on a power cord *you* will hear a difference -- nobody else will, but *you* will.

I guess if you want your lights to dim when you turn it up you may need a fatter power cord and a 30amp circuit. My favorites are $100.00 gold HDMI connectors, the $1000.00/channel esoteric speaker cables and the $25.00 green felt tip marker to paint the edges of CDs. If you don't have them you don't know what you're missing.

Sorry...back on topic: Is there a way to test your ground? I have a multimeter but I'm clueless about which setting to use.

 

[ehpoole]

There really is no way for a homeowner to test their ground, a multimeter simply does not suffice for the purpose.

The power company has the proper gear and sometimes you can talk them into performing the test for you -- but you really need to try and run your test when the soil conditions are at their worst (dry and extended period of drought) because that is when your protection is at its weakest. I don't recall off hand what the target resistance is, but your power company will know the optimal resistance.

Additional rods should be separated from one another by at least 6' (simply following your exterior walls is simplest) and connected by a heavy gauge solid copper ground wire -- preferably a single uninterrupted length of wire between your service entrance panel and the ground rods to help keep resistance to its minimum and minimize points of failure down the road.

 

[Ken Massingale]

This is an interesting thread, and many good points have been discussed.

But, no 'surge protector' is going to help stop a million volt lightning strike. They are for voltage spikes not lightning strikes.

Just my opinion based on use of quality SP's and seeing what nearby lightning did to them and the equipment they were 'protecting'.
Make sure your insurance covers lightning damage.

Ken

 

[tharindhu007]

that is important, insurance have to to cover damages from lightning, equipment will damage due to lightning