OT - Whole House Surge Protection

A week or so ago I was getting ready to pick up another surge protector for my new home entertainment center.
I got to wondering; is there such a thing as a "whole house" surge protector?
Turns out there is. I did a little research and wound up with an Eaton from Home Depot for $118 plus tax delivered to my door. Interestingly, they don't sell it at their stores; only on line.
While I was at it, I also got the partner units for the telephone and cable.

We built or house in 1980 and they came out with those just after we built the house. With that you can do away with all the other surge protectors you have in the house.

BTW, Don't pay any attention to all the "spaghetti" wires in there, they go to the switch gear
for the generator.
All that is needed to hook up the surge protector is a dedicated 50 amp two pole breaker.
Four wires are supplied.........one to ground buss bar, one to neutral buss bar, and one each to the two
terminals on the breaker.
Real easy!!

Your box looks good I have a lot more wires in mine box. Does that 50 amp breaker just go any where in box ? The ones I saw went between the main and incoming power source.

This is a 200 Amp panel so the breakers can go anywhere within it.
two pole breakers use up two spaces. I put this breaker in the lower
corner out of the way as it is used solely for the surge protector.

My 40 breaker 200 amp panel is full I wonder If it could be put in the sub panel. I have room in sub panel for more breakers.

What if the surge is created within the house? I would think this would be great for externally created surges, but would keep individual protectors on senitive equipment anyway. Be aware that surge protectors loose their ability to protect with age and use.

I got my whole house surge protector from Duke, power company. It goes between the meter and meter base. Cost around $500. If anything happens Duke stands behind it. If I move, I can take the protector with me too, it's mine.

Ray, as a matter of fact while I was researching this, I found that many people suggest continuing use
of individual plug-in suppressors for a sort of "double-layer" of protection.

Geo,
In my research, I found that yours is the ultimate surge protection system.
However, It is more expensive and not something the average guy can do.
Apparently, some utility companies do not allow installation of these in their systems.

Brian,
I've had lightning come in via power lines. A hold lot of damage can be done before it gets to your protector.

What I have is called a strike protector, not just a surge protector.

The strike protector just plugs into the meter base. I purchased a second one for my rental across the street.

I had the strike protector installed about 10 years ago after a neighbor's tree fell on my power line and broke just the neutral wire. That created wild 110 voltages. I lost the brain box to garage door opener, clock/oven controls to Jen-air range, and toasted all the surge protectors in the house. I even had a surge protector on my dishwasher. Dishwater was saved because I had it surge protected. Now I have strike protector and everything that is expensive had an additional surge protector.

Hope I don't have to find out just how good they really are, but if I do Duke will pay for damages.

I have one in my main CB panel.

Why does the surge protector require a dedicated breaker?

There is a second reason that these devices work better. The distance which is unintentionally gained by this type of installation will, through the stress calculation (time/rate of change) allow the active device to bleed off the "surge" before it can "rise" to a destructive level. Though there are several types of devices used for surge suppression, they all benefit greatly from this same phenomenon.

A second helper is a buried service entrance. The reluctance of the conductor will suppress the rise and in most cases linit the peak.

I designed my house to have an eighth of a mile of buried 7200V, and 100 feet of buried 220V with surge protection. I haven't had a problem in many years...

(quoted from post at 13:31:51 04/10/15) We built or house in 1980 and they came out with those just after we built the house. With that you can do away with all the other surge protectors you have in the house.

Click to expand...

Whole house protector is how it has been done in facilities that cannot have damage; for over 100 years. This stuff is not new. But it is new to consumers whose information comes mostly from advertising.

Those plug-in protectors do not even claim to protect from destructive surges. A destructive surge might be hundreds of thousands of joules. How many joules does that plug-in protector claim to absorb? Hundreds? Surges that tiny are routinely made irrelevant by protection already inside all appliances. Those protectors are also so tiny as to sometimes create fires. Yes, be concerned. Because plug-in protectors also require protection provided by a 'whole house' protector.

Effective protectors are for all surges. A direct lightning strike may be 20,000 amps. So a minimally sized 'whole house' protector is 50,000 amps. Because no surge damages properly sized protectors.

The Cutler-Hammer is but one example. 'Whole house' protectors are provided by a long list of manufacturers known for their integrity including General Electric, Square D, Syscom, Intermatic, Polyphaser (an industry benchmark), Ditek, ABB, Siemens, and Leviton. Not listed are Belkin, Panamax, Tripplite, Monster, and APC.

Schneider Electric recently purchased APC. Then discovered some protectors were so badly designed as to be removed immediately - due to fire. They are called surge protectors. But some are only for surges that typically cause no damage - such as noise from other appliances. Concern is a rare transient that can overwhelm superior protection already inside appliances.

A different is obvious. 'Whole house' protectors in a breaker box, in a meter pan, or installed by the utility would have a low impedance (ie 'less than 10 foot') connection to earth ground. Protectors never do protection. Read that again. Protectors are only connecting devices to what does protection: single point earth ground. Those power strip protectors have no earth ground and will not discuss it. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.

Every layer of protection is defined by what harmlessly absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules - a critically important number. Best protection for cable TV is a hardwire from that coax to earth - again low impedance. No protector required.

Telephone wire cannot connect directly to earth. So your telco has installed a 'whole house' protector for free. That protector is only doing what the hardwire would do better. Because protectors are only connecting devices - are not protection.

Earth ground defines protection. But it must be "single point earth ground". Separate grounds means a protector may even make surge damage easier.

The 'whole house' protector is the 'secondary' protection layer. That protection layer is defined by what does protection - the earth ground. You are also encouraged to inspect your 'primary' surge protection layer. A picture demonstrates what to inspect:
http://www.tvtower.com/fpl.html

Finally, little difference is between overhead and underground service wires. All incoming utility wires (overhead and underground) need same and properly earthed protection.