Whole House Surge Protection

[icellama21]

Here are the ideas I have for whole house surge protection:

1) External device that mounts very near service panel. Usually connected to dedicated breakers on both phases. Any problems with inductance/capacitance in the wires/parts used? A surge suppressor that doesn't clamp the voltage spike until after it has reached the whole house is not useful. The ones I have seen come with 6ft pigtails, and recommend a 12/14 gauge wire to ground. Seems like a long path over high-resistance, high-inductance wires.

2) Circuit breaker that mounts in panel. Murray/Siemens makes a double-pole breaker that also protects 2 15/20A circuits and doesn't waste any space. Others seem to require a dedicated double pole breaker.

3) Meter based. In some states/cities this is standard. Unfortunately in MA, no one has heard of these and the power company knows nothing about it. Anyone have a good supplier for these? Or at least a guide as to the different types of meter plugs? Are they standard?

Of course secondary surge protection at devices, telephone, CATV, etc is important too. But I'd really like to know about your experiences with whole house surge protection. Does it work?

 

[Steve]

Of course secondary surge protection at devices, telephone, CATV, etc is important too. But I'd really like to know about your experiences with whole house surge protection. Does it work?

It's nothing more than insurance.It totally depends on what the surge is, where it came from and how big it is. In some cases they may totally save you and in others it may do little more than nothing as in a direct lightning hit. But in general I think they are a good idea and worth it. The one I am installing shortly is this one. The meter based ones are nice too but most of the time they are 'rented' by the power company and will cost you more in the long run. But you don't have to worry about installation and usually they are checked and replaced for free when needed.

 

[nov0798]

1) External device that mounts very near service panel. Usually connected to dedicated breakers on both phases. Any problems with inductance/capacitance in the wires/parts used? A surge suppressor that doesn't clamp the voltage spike until after it has reached the whole house is not useful. The ones I have seen come with 6ft pigtails, and recommend a 12/14 gauge wire to ground. Seems like a long path over high-resistance, high-inductance wires.


The 6ft pigtails and 12/14ground may seem like high resistance to you, but you have to remember that electricity takes the easiest path to ground. When you add up the TOTAL resistance of the circuit (wire, breaker, etc.), the path to ground through the device is probably less than the circuits as a whole, so esentially you have the easiest path to ground.

 

[dutchyn]

I installed the SDSB1175C. But I didn't pay $420 for it; HomeDepot in Canada had them for $99; and I saved more by installing it myself. It also protects telephone and two coax lines.

Chris D.

 

[gatchel]

I used a Ditek WH-8 whole house package

http://www.ditekcorp.com/product-details.asp?ProdKey=82

I haven't had any problems as of yet. I also haven't had anything to compare by.

Belt and suspenders...

 

[felixrosbergen]

I got the Leviton unit installed that hooks up to dedicated breakers.

As the electrician was installing this he told me not to put too much faith in it for direct hits of lighting. He had the same thing in his house and get a very close hit. He said everything in his house is compeltely fried to the very last alarm clock, treadmill, fridge, everything. Also he told me that some wires actual jumper out of the drywall. He's having to almost gut his house. I suppose after a hit like that you can't be sure of any wire in your house anymore (half of them are probably melted) and you end up opening all the walls and starting from scratch again...

Good oppertunity to put all that whole house audio stuff in your forgot about.

 

[forgets]

for my $.02,

i've got the panamax unit, cause i didn't want to give up any breakers in my electrical box, (though this one can be installed there as well) i have it installed out near the electrical meter.. panamax is pretty respected when it comes to surge appliances from what i've heard.. and this one comes with a pretty good warranty to boot.. also it handles more joules than most of the rest of the ones out there.

panamax whole house surge protector

it can be found cheaper online than the price listed, even at an authorized dealer.

also from what i understand it's better to mount these as close as possible to the meter (if the meter isn't near the main) because electrical strikes usually travel down the main lines and installing it near the meter gives the surge hopefully enough time to kick in before the strike reaches the panel (which is what fries the wires).. ultimately as has been said before here (and by other electricians), if you get a direct hit, nothing's gonna save your wires.. though living in florida, the lightning capital, i've had one of these get fried protecting other equipment.. and panamax sent me another unit free.. even though the old one died doing its job, none of my other appliances were affected (YMMV, of course).. in the end, i think any of the ones listed before would probably be good choices as well, as having something is better than nothing.

 

[tmbrown97]

I had a meter-based one in a rental... in that city, there were power issues and within a week a surge fried a couple of things... called electric company for the rented meter one and never had another issue over the next 4.5 years. Lightning strikes on houses here are unheard of.