House panel question - surge protection

[Falcon67]

Since we just had a near hit from a lightning storm and lost all the outdoor LED landscape lighting, xformer, GFCI, DSL router and such - I'm looking for whole house surge unit. The house panel is a flush mount Siemens G3040MB1200CU and it's full of Cutler-Hammer breakers, mostly BR120s.

Local I can get a GE surge unit that snaps into the panel board. It "looks" like it should drop right in, same style etc. I would prefer this because I can tandem a couple of low use light or plug circuits to make room. Just not sure the GE part is compatible. Siemens of course lists only QP, QT so that panel info isn't much help.

Cutler is Eaton as far as I can tell - the only thing I find for Eaton is a whole house that mounts next to the panel board. That may be the way I end up. Their units still require a dedicated breaker, either 15A or 50A. Still have to make a hole in the wall and route wires, plus get tandems.

Any other recommendation on compatible breakers or surge would be appreciated. Going with straight Siemens units will be $$$, breakers cost more than the surge unit.

 

[pattenp]

A surge protector in most cases will not stop a close or direct lighting strike.

 

[Stuff]

Normally BR breakers are not listed for a Siemens panel.
Siemens is not cheap but it is easy and no drywall work. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052MG5K0/?tag=atomicindus08-20 - It is a type QP.

Also - double check your GEC (grounding rods and paraphernalia) as that gives the better path to ground for lightning.

 

[Falcon67]

Normally BR breakers are not listed for a Siemens panel.
Siemens is not cheap but it is easy and no drywall work. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052MG5K0/?tag=atomicindus08-20 - It is a type QP.

Thanks for the link - had not found that one yet. We have dual rods on the house, installed by the original Poco. They are terminated at the external meter can. Figures that the installed breakers are not listed - there was some real hack work in this house and no contractor name proudly displayed inside the panel. In fact, when we bought the place in 2010, there were no ground rods or UFER at all on the house. Been like that for almost 10 years before we got there. So much for inspections.

>A surge protector in most cases will not stop a close or direct lighting strike.
It'll be better than nothing - all the TVs and other network equipment are on surge strips or UPS power and none of that took a hit. I imagine the DSL router took it from the pole wires into the DSL subscriber line port. We lease the router from WIndstream, so they are sending a replacement. The strike was close, maybe several hundred feet. I can't tell if it hit a pole - none in the alley are damaged, but it did trip the "fuse" at the top of our pole. AEP heros climbed that pole in the wet around 4:30AM to reset it. Have not found any tree damage close by either.

 

[cybrdyke]

Whole home surge protection needs to include separate protection for phone lines and for coaxial cables. You can get all this in one box, but not in a plug in surge breaker. For a complete system, you should also include surge devices on plugged in electronic equipment. FWIW, most surge plug strips that you find at the big box store are complete junk and not worth the 4 or 5 dollars they cost. Pony up. Get a good one.
CD

 

[Falcon67]

FWIW, most surge plug strips that you find at the big box store are complete junk and not worth the 4 or 5 dollars they cost. Pony up. Get a good one.

Used to work with electrical engineers and am familiar with MOVs, etc used in surge suppression. I use APC products and have had good luck with those.

We don't do cable. I also doubt there is any available surge suppression for VDSL/VDSL2 grade bonded subscriber lines. At least not something that would not screw with the high speed data rates. VDSL is very picky on line noise and other things. The DSL supplies a home office and the speed is needed. I'd buy a spare modem if I could find one but so far none found for consumer sale. Why we lease from Windstream. The replacement arrived this AM and my wife already has the new part configured and running.

 

[Rbreddin]

A surge protector in most cases will not stop a close or direct lighting strike.

Any Lightning protection system designed for a structure should also include TVSS but not necessarily the other way around.

 

[chinboys]

I installed one of these off a 20 AMP double pole breaker per instructions from
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013WINLIO/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[RustyJunk]

An easy thing to do is make sure you have good grounds, seems everyplace I ever lived the ground wires were either not properly connected or left disconnected by some nucklehead phone company or cable guy.

 

[Falcon67]

LOL, I did check all that to be sure - grounds on dmarc, etc. The rods are on the side of the house that gets watered regularly so they should have good ground contact. Not sure I have a meter sensitive enough to check. The neighbor just to the west works in power distribution and thinks the strike may have been near a pole or hit the top wire, enough to energize the wires for a few milliseconds. The shock wave from the hit broke a window in the back of their house.

 

[ddawg16]

If the tornado's don't get you, the lightning will.

I'm glad my only worry is earthquakes and drive by's


Here is a link to a few Mike Holt articles on the subject

https://www.mikeholt.com/technical-lightning-and-surge-protection-newsletter-menu.php

 

[Stuart in MN]

This is a link to the Siemens surge protection device for residential panelboards, it's called a FirstSurge: https://w3.usa.siemens.com/powerdis...folio/surge-protection/Pages/first-surge.aspx I see that Home Depot has them listed on their website. It's designed to mount outside the panelboard but there is a flush mount kit available to install it in the wall next to a flush mount panelboard.

 

[walta]

I put one of these on each of my panels.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Eaton-Home-Surge-Protection-CHSPT2SURGE/207093234


Walta

 

[Falcon67]

Update - found a dead GFCI in the shop that powered the network equipment and one bad port on a Netgear switch. The Siemens panel surge+ breaker unit is on the way and now I have a Homelite surge on the way for the shop panel LOL.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008DIYAPM/?tag=atomicindus08-20