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Ask Slashdot: Best Option For Heavy-Duty, Full-Home Surge Protection?
First time accepted submitter kmoser writes "Like most people, I have a couple of surge protectors for sensitive/important electronics, and even a UPS for a couple of items like computers. But I don't have surge protector on all outlets, and these consumer-grade devices don't cover things like 220 volt appliances. Add to that the fact that I live in a lightning-prone area and it's only a matter of time before one of my expensive devices has a major meltdown. I've looked into full-home surge protectors that install next to the fuse box but the prices vary widely and I have no idea how reliable they are or what brands are good. An electrician friend tells me they can still blow out, and when they do they're difficult to replace if they were installed behind a wall. Can anybody shed some light on the best options for protecting all the electronics in my house with a single surge protector?"
" protecting all the electronics in my house with a single surge protector?" That's going to be a lot of extension cords
So here is a non answer to your question: Just replace stuff when they break Put your surge protectors next to the expensive stuff and gets some insurance. Replace things when they break. Unless your dealing with medical equipment or servers don't bother with some expensive custom solution.
Any electrician will tell you that whole house surge protection does not replace local surge protection. It stops most of the spike but not all of it. You still have to have surge protection strips locally for sensitive equipment.
You're confusing current and voltage. Fuses and breakers are over-current devices, Transient Surge Suppressors are over-voltage devices. A high voltage at low amps can destroy all the electronics in the house without tripping a breaker or burning a fuse. The only thing that over-current devices protect against are short circuits in devices or in wiring, or excessive load that might overheat wiring.
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I have a surge protector connected to my power meter and the power company even guarantees your appliances against surges. Here is a link to FPL's "SurgeShield"
Effective lightning protection is layered. The socket surge protectors are actually meant to be used in combination with the other layers, not standalone. A close enough lightning strike will induce strong currents in the wiring between the fuse box and your appliances. The surge protectors are designed to protect against the resulting voltage and not much more, and obviously a central surge protector can not protect your appliances if it's not between the surge and the appliance. Stronger surges from lightning strikes into the power lines outside your house on the other hand will not be stopped by the small surge protectors alone. You need both. And then you'll also want a lightning rod to prevent direct strikes into your wiring, because no surge protector would be able to handle a direct strike.
We've got an observatory on a hill with air cabling and plenty of lightning. Our three-stage
protection has never failed through the power line. DSL connections have died many times through the
telephone lines.
First line of defence are large MOV devices with separate grounding installed at the nearest pole. Cost about 600USD.
Second line is at the breaked boxes, cost 400 USD.
Third line is done with 'normal' plug-level protectors for the most sensitive equipment.
Google for Phoenix Contact surge protection..
Here is an excellent panel mounted surge suppressor. http://ep2000.com/index.php?page=industrial
It isn't cheap (several hundred dollars IIRC) but excellent quality.
Protecting against surges (Transients) and Lightning strikes are 2 very different things. I have worked in some of the nicest tier IV data centers with state of the art redundant power systems and protection. Most Tier IV data centers will have a "Lightning Detection" system. They will count on their power systems and grounding to help, but still track area lightning strikes and be on alert to check things should lightning hit them or close to them. The reason is because there is not gaurantee's when it comes to lightning. That much energy can jump gaps in blown breakers, fuses, and circuits and cause all sorts of havoc, even if the Generator and UPS is still up. Now, transient surge suppression is a different issue and not too expensive for whole home systems IMO. It is not a guarantee, but it is better than nothing at all. http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=174 (this is link to APC residential hard wire panel mount surge suppression options at list cost). Couple a home solution like the APC units above that protects all the random outlets in your house, with strategically placed UPS systems (behind entertainment center, in the office, etc.) and you are getting a decent ammount of protection from the normal surges and near strikes. In closing, lightning is a odd thing. I have been in a house and care that where "stuck". In the car, almost everything was fine, radio lost its pre-sets and time, etc. but that was about it. I don't remember even having any fuses go out. In the house, some things where fried, others where fine. For example, my roommates TV was toast, but the main one in the living room was OK, neither where on UPS. The cordless phone was fine, but the speakers in the corded handset where toast and would only squeal when you turned on the phone.
Not at all. Parent post suggested a second option: Insurance. One option is to try to make sure nothing ever fails. The second option is to assume that things will fail, and have a recovery plan. This is a vaild suggestion.
Exactly. In fact, in some courses (sigh...flame suit on...MBA classes, specifically), you are taught to always consider not only a few viable and different options, but also the "do-nothing" option. Evaluate what happens if questioner does nothing, i.e. stays with the status quo.
Sometimes people come up with all kinds of extravagant and ridiculous schemes and never stop to consider "well, I know my boss said 'do something', but what would be the consequences if we left things as they are?". The answer may not be palatable to the person with the bucks, but then again the do-nothing approach could turn out to be the best option.
I know MBA courses are not the sole preserve of such wisdom, but that's where I had it drummed into me (possibly in an effort to try and avoid the kinds of expensive mistakes that make people sneer at MBAs). First option in your list - do nothing, stay with what you have now. Expenses, risks, benefits.
You may as well save your money because that $200 whole house surge protector isn't going to protect you from a lightning strike any better than a good quality surge protecting power strip.
Just use surge protectors where needed that have an equipment replacement guarantee - and make sure you're protecting phone lines, TV cables, etc too, not just power.
If you have something truly expensive to protect, use an online ups (not line interactive) for more isolation - a lightning strike might take out your UPS, but is less likely to reach your computer (but if it's a nearby strike, all bets are off since even your ground can be a path for a power surge).
Or, just throw caution to the wind - I spent 10 years in a lightning prone area, and never used a surge protector at all -- lightning made the lights flicker many times, but I never lost a computer, TV, or stereo (or any other device) to a lightning strike. On the other hand, I saw the aftermath of a nearby strike on a friends house - lightning hit a nearby power pole, and he said he saw sparks shooting from his outlets. He did lose his TV and stereo (which were both plugged in but powered off by a physical switch at the time).
Not true, just like AIDS and other STDs, there most certainly is a perfect protection available....its just that most people don't like sitting in the dark with all of their electronics unplugged, especially if they aren't getting laid either.
Of course, in either case, this solution is not considered fun.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
I should add that if you have iron pipes, you can get much of the same protection by grounding to the water pipes at the closest point to where they run underground.
That might not meet code, these days, but it used to for a very long time. And it will give you a serviceable ground.
Don't ground to your gas pipe, though. Not A Good Idea.
The NEC these days has you drive a 6'-8' ground rod underneath the panel at the service entrance, bonded to the panel. You ALSO have to run bare copper back to the service entrance for water, and bond to that as well. In case one or the other fails, you still have a reliable path to ground. It's not simply a matter of bonding to grounds though. The panel itself needs to include a bus bar for tying all the individual grounds together, and providing a path to both both bonded ground points. So now you're basically looking at a service change, replacing the panel, meter, and mast (if applicable). It's not horribly expensive, but it's not cheap either (I used to do em for around $5k-10$k depending on the job, but that was years ago).
Lightning is weird and it is very difficult to predict what may be harmed by a strike.
Just like my ex-wife!
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You don't install surge protectors to defend against a direct lightning strike --- there is no real defense against a direct lightning strike - you can make it less likely with a well-engineered lightning rod protection system.
You install surge protectors to defend against currents induced by nearby lightning in your wiring. This is protection against damage lightning can cause without actually striking your wiring, or your building. If lightning strikes a mile away from you, and hits the ground, or a tree: this lightning can still induce currents in unshielded underground and overhead power and data cables. If there is no surge protection, the induced currents may destroy sensitive electronics such as computer power supplies.
In a direct hit situation, lightning hitting a surged protected circuit can easily arc through any surge protector; human safety is paramount in the design of surge protection and electrical systems, anyways, so there are always compromises anyways, that is, surge protectors still share a common ground with everything else, and a direct hit clamped to ground can effect everything else tied to that ground --- Remember, with resistors in parallel, the amount of current is proportional to the resistance - the amount of voltage passing through the higher resistance path is not zero. Even if 99.9% of the lightning strike is clamped to ground, the 0.1% can still be 10000 volts.
No commercially available surge protector apparatus able to be fitted to a home electrical system and other utility lines entering a building with a price that is remotely affordable to the average homeowner is capable of providing remotely robust protection against a direct strike.
You ALSO have to run bare copper back to the service entrance for water, and bond to that as well. In case one or the other fails, you still have a reliable path to ground.
That's not why you have to do it; "grounding" is relative and not a magic thing that guarantees no current will flow, electrical current can flow between "ground" connections. Ground potential varies from place to place, 10 feet away, ground can be at a different potential. Geology, Electromagnetic interference, solar activity, lightning, electrical faults elsewhere, and other factors can further exacerbate the difference.
Bonding is required for the same reason that Neutral and Ground must be connected together at one place (the main service panel). If you do not have Plumbing Ground and Electrical ground bonded, you have different parts of your system connected to ground at different places ---- this means, the ground on your service panel can now be at a different electrical potential than your plumbing.
What this means, is that if something conductive touches both your plumbing, and something connected to the main panel ground (or neutral), current will flow through that conductive thing, to equalize the potential of the different grounds.
If that conductive thing is a human, this could very well mean that someone dies, because they touched the tap electrically connected to the plumbing, and a kitchen appliance with a metal chassis connected to neutral.
Therefore, the requirement is that you already have these bonded together with a low resistance path.. The bonding ensures that both systems are always at the same potential, so current does not flow between Neutral or Main panel ground and your plumbing.