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whole house surge suppressor

thammel

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 3, 2005
Messages
2,245
Location
Maryland
Came home yesterday to s strange situation. There were some strong storms and maybe lightning affected things. At first, I thought power was out, but the generator was not running. Then it seemed that some circuits were on. I went to the panels and saw that about 5-10 breakers were tripped. I re-set them and all is fine. Time to get a whole house surge suppressor - this has been on my list for some time. HAs anyone experienced this?

Tom
 
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kd3pc

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Joined
Aug 10, 2013
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3,630
Location
Northern Neck
they work pretty well, and are often easy to install (DIY) if you have an empty space for a breaker to use for the suppressor.

They are not 100% protection and are often destroyed in their protection/suppression when they do take a hit.
 

nynexit

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Joined
Feb 8, 2015
Messages
211
Location
Long Island
I had a sacrificial one installed on my main panel back in 07 when I had the electrician over for something else , come to think of it - I wonder if these things useful life spans and need to be switched out periodically.


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thammel

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Joined
Oct 3, 2005
Messages
2,245
Location
Maryland
rookie2 - I don't think we ever lost power, but a lightning surge tripped about 1/4 of the breakers. I bought the surge suppressor - Eaton (CH) brand and will be putting it in soon.

Tom
 

westom

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Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Messages
221
I bought the surge suppressor - Eaton (CH) brand and will be putting it in soon.
Remember that no surge protector does protection. An effective protector connects to what does protection - single point earth ground. That protector is only as effective as its earth ground.

For example, if a quarter inch, bare copper ground wire goes up over the foundation and down to earth, then ground meets safety code and compromises protection. That wire is too long, has sharp bends, and probably is not separated from other non-grounding wires.

To have a low impedance connection means that wire must be as short as possible (ie less than 10 feet) and not have sharp bends going over a foundation. Better is to reroute an earth ground connection to go through a foundation and down to single point earth ground. To shorten the connection, eliminate sharp bends, have no splices, and not be inside metallic conduit.

Single point means surge protection provided by TV cable, satellite dish, and telephone company (installed for free) must also connect low impedance (ie less than 10 feet) to that same earth ground.

Protection is always about the 'system' component that absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules. Earth ground is why a protector is effective. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground - which a 'whole house' protector can have and a plug-in protector clearly does not.
 

sberry

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Joined
Jun 18, 2005
Messages
35,747
Location
Brethren, Michigan
I had a problem from the phone co, I finally looked at 88, did what Westom says and had one other hit and it used to be a regular deal. Had a whole box of blown up suppressors and ran to it every time there was a storm. Had one hit since about 10 yrs ago and took out the sup from the phone co, just like it sposed to work
 
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