Learn About The Importance Of Surge Suppression

What is a surge suppressor for?

Power surges are very common occurrences, and they can be caused by any number of things. In addition to the turning-on and shutting-off of high-power electronic devices, a few other power surge culprits include nearby lightning strikes, power line disturbances, and high-frequency electromagnetic noise.

Over the years, as technology has progressed, electronics have grown more and more sensitive to fluctuations in the electrical currents powering them. The microprocessors and other fragile components in computers and home theater equipment can be compared to temperamental little divas: they perform like a dream, but if working conditions become unfavorable, they’ll blow up on you! Because of this, it’s more crucial than ever to invest in surge protection.

How does a Surge Protector work?

Surge protectors don’t operate instantaneously; a slight delay exists, some few nanoseconds. The longer the response time and depending on system impedance, the connected equipment maybe exposed to some of the surge. However, surges typically are much slower and take around a few microseconds to reach their peak voltage, and a surge protector with a nanosecond response time would kick in fast enough to suppress the most damaging portion of the spike.

Thus response time under standard testing is not a useful measure of a surge protector’s ability when comparing MOV devices. All MOVs have response times measured in nanoseconds, while test waveforms usually used to design and calibrate surge protectors are all based on modeled waveforms of surges measured in microseconds. As a result, MOV-based protectors have no trouble producing impressive response-time specs.

Slower-responding technologies (notably, GDTs) may have difficulty protecting against fast spikes. Therefore, good designs incorporating slower but otherwise useful technologies usually combine them with faster-acting components, to provide more comprehensive protection.

Surge Suppression at a commercial level

The most obvious source is from lightning, but surges can also come from normal utility switching operations, or unintentional grounding of electrical conductors (such as when an overhead power line falls to the ground). Surges may even come from within a building or facility from such things as fax machines, copiers, air conditioners, elevators, motors/pumps, or arc welders, to name a few. In each case, the normal electric circuit is suddenly exposed to a large dose of energy that can adversely affect the equipment being supplied power.

The following are surge protection guidelines on how to protect electrical equipment from the devastating effects of high-energy surges. Surge protection that is properly sized and installed is highly successful in preventing equipment damage, especially for sensitive electronic equipment found in most equipment today.

Grounding Is Fundamental

A surge protection device (SPD), also known as a transient voltage surge suppressor (TVSS), is designed to divert high-current surges to ground and bypass your equipment, thereby limiting the voltage that is impressed on the equipment. For this reason, it is critical that your facility have a good, low-resistance grounding system, with a single ground reference point to which the grounds of all building systems are connected. Without a proper grounding system, there is no way to protect against surges. Consult with a licensed electrician to ensure that your electrical distribution system is grounded in accordance with the National Electric Code (NFPA 70).

Zones Of Protection

The best means of protecting your electrical equipment from high-energy electrical surges is to install SPDs strategically throughout your facility. Considering that surges can originate from both internal and external sources, SPDs should be installed to provide maximum protection regardless of the source location. For this reason, a “Zone of Protection” approach is generally employed. The first level of defense is achieved by installing an SPD on the main service entrance equipment (i.e., where the utility power comes into the facility). This will provide protection against high energy surges coming in from the outside, such as lightning or utility transients.

However, the SPD installed at the service entrance will not protect against internally generated surges. In addition, not all of the energy from outside surges is dissipated to ground by the service entrance device. For this reason, SPDs should be installed on all distribution panels within a facility that supply power to critical equipment. Similarly, a third zone of protection would be achieved by installing SPDs locally for each piece of equipment being protected, such as computers or computer controlled devices. Each zone of protection adds to the overall protection of the facility as each helps to further reduce the voltage exposed to the protected equipment.

Do I need whole house surge protection?

A good whole-house surge protection device allows in only the electricity your home needs and not the unruly over-voltages from the utility—then it protects your devices from any trouble that can occur from surges inside the house.

Whole-house surge protective devices (SPDs) are typically wired to the electric service box and located nearby to protect all the appliances and electrical systems in a home.

The average home experiences 20 power surges a day, about half of which are internal. In addition, over 20 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes occur annually in the continental U.S., whose resulting losses are typically not covered under homeowner’s insurance. And we know that Florida has more that its fair share of lighting strikes.

Next steps?

Contact Gold Standard Electric to come out to your home or business and evaluate your needs. Get the information you need to determine how to tackle your protection needs.