icellama21
Active Member
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?
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?