So as not to hijack another thread, I thought I’d start this one. How difficult (expensive) is it to have a whole house surge protector installed?
Lost my router to an electrical storm the other night so it’s fresh on my mind.
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power company will do it for you.
Thanks, I'll check with them.Help fight cancer -- donate your unused computer time.
what I meant was, around here. The power company will add a surge protector to your meter box for like $11 a month extra and will quarentee anything inside the house against lightin or surges.
Progress Eenrgy in Florida (and probably N Carolina) charges about $35 one-time and $9 a month. They give a $5,000 'repait/replace' guarantee for damaged items.
Innovative Technolgy (http://www.itvss.com) makes some really effective units. Their products are designed to wire into your service entrance, panel, or sub-panel, and are designed to take hit after hit. Last person I knew who installed one of these paid about $500 for it.
Square-D is offering a product that plugs into your panel (assuming a Square-D panel). However, it's MOV based. The problem with MOVs is that they're pretty much one-shot devices. The problem is knowing when they're shot. Apparently, the Square-D in-panel devices have a LED to tell you when they need replacing. You just need to get into the habit of checking the panel if you use this type of product.
Same thing happened to me last Friday night. My router & every NIC attatched to it got fried.
I'm definitely putting a whole house surge protector in my panel when I get to running electric.
Are you sure the surge was in the AC power lines and didn't come through the phone/cable system ? Losing the router and the network cards isn't the right symptom for a power hit..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Cable, phone & electric all came through the surge suppressor - so I guess a whole house suppressor wouldn't fix this issue. I have a couple of theories, but I should probably start another thread so I don't hijack this one.
a whole house suppressor wouldn't fix this issue
If sized correctely and with low inductance installation, a whole house suppressor can protect against even nuclear lightning.
Back in the 'Good ol' days" of the 60s when vendors could give/sell 'samples' to corporate or government customers without concerns about 'waste, fraud,abuse' that was later put in an evil light by egregious examples of bribery, etc., I got a commercial arrestor from a vendor at cost and have never had a lightning problem in my house. In today's $$$, it was likely a $1K device, definetely not a $4 bigbox made in china arrestor.
APC power products makes a supressor just for network wiring, as a lightening strike will travel down any wire it finds, including cable TV wiring. In a previous life I used to do telecomm wiring and lost track of the number of houses where CATV wiring was done, and not grounded outside per code.
Renaissance RestorationsAntique & Victorian Home Restoration Serviceshttp://www.renaissancerestorations.com
And, routers/modems usually aren't plauegged directly into 110V, they get power from a brick (aka: transformer) that as often as not isn't plugged into the surge suppressor..
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
Several companies make surge suppressors that wire directly to your panel. Some of them offer the ability to protect your catv and phone with the same unit. Prices vary greatly. You may want to have and electrician install it. Even with the cost of the electrician, you would be ahead after a couple of years vs. paying the utility month after month. As for the insurance, some of the manufacturers offer it, but check for any exceptions..like "must be installed by an electrician."
Hope that helps a little.
Thanks all,Luckily I'd unplugged the computers, just didn't bother with the router.KenHelp fight cancer -- donate your unused computer time.
You can buy one that will fit into most breaker panels. This fits in a double pole breaker slot, with a ground wire run to the ground bus.
Another style installs through a KO in the panel and you run wires to the ground bus and to the switched side of the main breaker.
You can also get your electric co to install one in many cases. This is generally a 1-2" thick gizmo that fits behind the meter.
Note that most of these are "slow" and don't totally eliminate the utility of point-of-use protectors. But they do a better job of handling big surges.
Note that most of these are "slow" and don't totally eliminate the utility of point-of-use protectors. But they do a better job of handling big surges.
Dan, some may be slow, but others are quite fast. Innovative Technology, for instance, rates their "Protector" models at 1ns "response time," and have substantial EMI/RFI filtering. In practice, with a lightning strike, a lot of the energy that comes down the wires is well under 10 MHz -- downright slow in electronic terms There is even a sine wave tracking option too, for the really paranoid (data centers and operating rooms).
A high quality service-entrance installed unit will eat a lot of the day-to-day (second-to-second) transients that shorten the life of everything from light bulbs on up. I heard a story once about an oil company that installed these in their gas stations. The light bulbs started lasting 3x longer - a welcome surprise.
In any event, for computer equipment, a UPS is really a good idea. If you get a model with a data cable and software (e.g., APC Smart-UPS), take a look at the data/event logs. You might be really surprised at how many overvoltages and undervoltages you get hit with every day. The thing of it is, those are really hard on equipment too.
These devices are transient voltage surge protection they will not protect from a direct lighting strike be careful. These units are available they usually require you to install a 220 breaker to hook the unit to.
I was reading an article the other month about ground transients, and there is a company that claims to have found a way to install surge protection on the ground(s) in a single circuit !
If this thing works it could offer protection from surges entering through ground strikes nearby , if I read the article right
Lightning is somewhat unpredictable and uncontrollable. If lightning strikes your house, there is not much that will help. But for spikes that originate further away lots of devices can provide very good protection.
In my two homes I installed protection at the main panel. The device was from Intermatic. I bought one at an electrical supply house, the other at a big box in my new town. They cost only about $40 each. You can install one yourself if you are knowledgeable about working in breaker panels.
They are one-shot deals with indicator LEDs, but I've never had a power surge in 47 years, so I don't mind replacing the protector if ever need be. Paying $11 a month to rent one is a waste of money.
In addition, a good power strip at the components provides another layer of protection, and can protect phone lines and cable connections, too. Someday when you have optical fiber to your home, that won't be a risk.
For any of the devices to function well your building ground must be a good one, because that's where the surge is sent. Check that your grounding conductor and all the clamps, etc. are solidly connected to a good earth ground. Needless to say your power strips must be plugged into grounded outlets.
Re: "In addition, a good power strip at the components provides another layer of protection, and can protect phone lines and cable connections, too. "IMO you make a good point. Layers are better than depending on a single unit. Also replace, actually reposition, those surge strips every year or two. Those MOVs wear out. The higher the value you place on what is being protected the higher the quality replacement you should get and the more often their replacement needs to be done. Once a year is about as often as I will go unless I'm forced to use cheap surge strips. As a reminder when you first use the strip take a marker to identify the month and year you install it. A year can creep up on you so having it clearly spelled out is a good idea.Replace the old ones but no need to throw them away. Unless they are actually smoked. Demote them to less important equipment. Like the microwave. Or your kids stereo system. Or the small TV in the guest room. The more the merrier. Deep protection, layers, is good. Deep and wide, surge protectors on many branch circuits, is even better.Of course, as you point out, without a solid ground, somewhere for the excess voltage to drain to, the surge protectors won't work. Solidly made up and uncorroded ground connections, a good GEC and rods are necessary to get the best performance.
I agree that layers are a good defense. Also consider what lighting can do besides entering your home via external wires. At the very least, I would protect your homes innards from those threat sources using one of the many options listed above.Then, depending where you live, you may also want to consider installing a lightning rod on the top of your home to give the current a low-resistance path to ground. I would probably use a separate grounding rod unless you have an Ufer-ground built into your foundation just in case the soil conditions aren't great that day and the soil-rod resistance is high. Also, think about how to route the lightning cable... You want (as much as possible) to avoid running it close and paralell to any wiring in the home. The very high voltage/current flash of a strike will induce a lot of current in paralell wiring, twisted-pair or not. The only "protected" wiring is the shielded kind, where the induced current is bled off via the shield.
The purpose of lightning rods isn't to provide a low resistance conductor for the lightning (although it IS low resistance). Lightning rods bleed off static electricity into the earth in order to prevent a voltage build up between the sky & ground. This prevents lightning from striking in the first place.
I'm definitely going to install lightning rods when my house is dried in. We're in the middle of a field & their are frequent storms in the summer.
Edited 8/15/2005 9:21 am ET by Soultrain
There continues to be considerable disagreement as to how lightning rods actually work. Best guess is that they BOTH help discharge the air AND bypass any actual strike to ground. However, there's clear evidence that they DO work (though not always perfectly).
Regardless, I'm definitely putting some on my house.
I always thought it odd that more people didn't use them.Of course, I haven't put them on my house either.
Help cure cancer! Donate unused computer time.
re: 'MOVs wear out'
Some general MOV info maybe not commonly available.
The 'wearout' mechanism is such that protection is actually better (increased protection) toward end of life. MOVs are primarily zinc oxide grains bound together by a (usally) barium oxide or even as simple as clay binder. Every time there is a surge that exceeds the grain boundry breakdown, that particular boundary literally melts thru creating a local short. Total failure of an MOV is when there is a melted path clean thru the disk at wich time the MOV is shorted.
Protection is lost only when the MOV blows apart (generally 3 to 5X the single pulse failure level for most plastic packaged commercial parts), but can be failsafed by the use of an upstream in line fast fuse (CB doesn't count for this protection). There are MOV installations/packaging that assure the MOV does not blow apart prior to the in-line fast fuse, but you won't find them in $3 outlet strips. Response time for any MOV itself is fast (picoseconds, where lightning rise time is typ 6 microsec, no faster than 500 ns; however, the leads negate the response time and that can be much slower than lightning in a poor setup, so MOV package claims of a reponse time are meaningless unless accompanied by a SPECIFIC installation setup and grounding configuration.
Good information.I have been told, read and understand that there is no practical way of determining how much capacity remains in an MOV. Which leads to many, including myself, to recommend that surge arrestors be replaced regularly. Not waiting for them to fail. No need to throw them away. They can be relocated to protect less important equipment.Your post also goes a long way to explain why the panel mounted units recommend keeping the leads as short as possible. The wonderful world of impedance and response times.Edited to add last block.
Edited 8/20/2005 10:37 pm ET by 4Lorn1
Good ones which also include cable & telephone (just as important & apt to cause fires as electrical) are not terribly expensive & the manufacturers have some good warrantees. These things should be mandatory for any service box upgrades due to the protection they provide.