It does fit inside the meter so there is nothing to see. It is a PC board that they insert in there.
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When we lived there, we got hit with a nasty one. My wife was on the (wired) phone and it shocked her! It took out my Carver receiver. And even the romex behind the walls of a couple of bedrooms! We could no longer turn on the lights there.
Ouch, yes that was a bad one. Your lucky it didn't start a fire inside the wall.
There's no box that can protect you from something like that.
Thank God no one was injured.
If that was the case, yea that would for sure be sloppy work but I don't imagine it to be the case.
No, there's absolutely no reason for it. A unit like you got just gets pushed into an empty double slot in the panel, preferably the one closest to the incoming power. The installer had no reason to mess with anything beyond just shutting off the mains breaker for a minute while he pushed it in? I can see no reason for this to effect your ground impedance?
My Eaton CHSPT2ULTRA is the same except requiring manually hard wiring in
See what the installed has to say
Good luck, let us know how it works out.
Speedskater
Major Contributor
Was the breaker for the dedicated circuit in the main breaker box moved to make room for for the double breaker surge protector at the top of the panel?
How did you measure the resistance between the Neutral and the Safety Ground and where did you measure?
Did you turn off the main breaker or the dedicated circuit's breaker while measuring?
* * * * * * * * *
with the Main breaker turned OFF, there should be 0.0 Ohms resistance between the Safety Ground bus and the Neutral bus in the main breaker box. (or the same Ohm value as the 2 probe tips touching each other)
How did you measure the resistance between the Neutral and the Safety Ground and where did you measure?
Did you turn off the main breaker or the dedicated circuit's breaker while measuring?
* * * * * * * * *
with the Main breaker turned OFF, there should be 0.0 Ohms resistance between the Safety Ground bus and the Neutral bus in the main breaker box. (or the same Ohm value as the 2 probe tips touching each other)
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There were 2, did you read them?
The surge protector I chose is the Siemens Pro FS140. Not cheap, more complex installation, but if you live in an area with a lot of cloud to ground lightning (we do), or your utility is known for voltage spikes, my research pointed to this one as the best residential unit available. You can get better protection, but then you're talking a lot more money. Available on Amazon:
Edit: I forgot, I also recommend the FSCATV protector for your broadband connection. It has a very low insertion loss.
Edit: I forgot, I also recommend the FSCATV protector for your broadband connection. It has a very low insertion loss.
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Nice unit, looks to be approx the same as the Eaton I got.
Installation isn't much of a problem if your comfortable working inside the panel.
One wire for each side of the 220 line, a neutral and a ground.
Just follow directions on connecting it to the first breaker on the feed.
Be careful.
You're responding to a spammer.
I am not comfortable working inside a live panel, so I hired a guy who does all of our electrical work. To get space for the required circuit breakers two others had to be condensed, and all of them pushed down two positions. Plumbing, landscaping, electrical work... I can do it, but I'd rather pay someone else to do it.Nice unit, looks to be approx the same as the Eaton I got.
Installation isn't much of a problem if your comfortable working inside the panel.
One wire for each side of the 220 line, a neutral and a ground.
Just follow directions on connecting it to the first breaker on the feed.
Be careful.
Good, better safe than sorry.
cent' anni
Destination: Moon
Senior Member
30 years ago when sighting the location of our house on the lot, I was very close to a strike that seemed like it came out of the blue. No rain or storm that I can remember. I jumped 5 feet into the air and smelled the ozone afterwards.
Next day I was on the phone with a lightning expert - professor at Florida State University.
He recommended a bonded lighting protection system. Which I had installed by professionals.
I didn't do any research but what we have is a Josylin 1285-65 Surgitron at the panel and half inch braided copper cable and rods all along the roofline. Still, one storm connected to one of the rods and a small surge of the current leapt from the cable into an exposed cold water pipe and got the garage. It blew a plugged in power block step down transformer across the garage 25 feet and we lost a few small devices and my tower PC.....
I'm pretty sure we would have had a fire if not for the rods and the buried cable that surrounds the house. The whole house surge protector didn't trip the breakers in the panel or blow the fuses.
To date I've had 4 very close encounters with lightning. Scary stuff
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Glad to see this older thread getting more legs.
I'm still kicking myself in the rear for not having at least some minimal home protection in place.
We all here have way too much invested in our gear not to take at least some basic safety measures.
My procrastination and "won't happen to me" attitude so far has cost me close to $5k.
Not to mention about 6 weeks work in restoring my systems capabilities and I'm not done yet.
I'm still kicking myself in the rear for not having at least some minimal home protection in place.
We all here have way too much invested in our gear not to take at least some basic safety measures.
My procrastination and "won't happen to me" attitude so far has cost me close to $5k.
Not to mention about 6 weeks work in restoring my systems capabilities and I'm not done yet.
Destination: Moon
Senior Member
Glad to see this older thread getting more legs.
I'm still kicking myself in the rear for not having at least some minimal home protection in place.
We all here have way too much invested in our gear not to take at least some basic safety measures.
My procrastination and "won't happen to me" attitude so far has cost me close to $5k.
Not to mention about 6 weeks work in restoring my systems capabilities and I'm not done yet.
I'm more worried about my appliances than audio equipment. Many things are not easily replaceable these days. Waiting a year for a new fridge at a completely insane price. Same is true of many other items. I've been able to get any audio gear desired all through the pandemic
Yea all that stuff too.
But I'm 72 and cook very little, all I need in a fridge is something to keep the beer cold. LOL
I'm going to inquire about the same... up to about $10k in losses so far, thankfully insurance has been good to deal with.
We had a strike close to the house at the end of last month. Various power strip surge protectors throughout the house did not protect gear attached to it - the 'surge' trips were not tripped... but 6 gfi receptacles in the house were. I'm guessing because the lightening current completed a loop through the electrical and ground outside? Certainly not wasting money on power strips after this!
paulraphael
Active Member
Reviving an old thread to share a few things I've learned while researching this. We bought an old house in Philadelphia and had the logic boards go out on a couple of appliances, and started to realize the sheer number of electronic things that are at risk, including big expensive stuff.
I'm about to install a Siemens FS140 at the panel, but plan to still use point-of-use suppressors for expensive electronics. Here's why:
There's a critical metric with suppressors that manufacturers often hide deep in the spec sheets: clamping voltage (also called voltage protection rating, or VPR). This is the maximum voltage that the suppressor will let through. The number is typically higher than you'd hope .
In fact, the lowest VPR you'll see on any suppressor is 330v. For whole house units, it's higher. The Siemens FS140 is rated at 600v, which is the lowest of any whole-house suppressor I've found. But that's still a lot of volts! It's easy to imagine it causing problems for more sensitive circuits downstream.
Cheap point-of-use suppressors are typically worse. Often over 800v. But some of the better brands (like APC) make ones as low as 330v, and these are typically mid-priced, like in the $30–$70 range.
The other important metric is the maximum amperage. Cheap suppressors list energy instead (in Joules); for whatever reason the commercial units use amps. The FS140 is rated at 140,000 amps, which would also correspond with a high joule rating, if they bothered to give it.
So it makes sense to use something like the Siemens unit as the first line of defense, to divert surges that would turn your point-of-use suppressor into a fireworks display. Then you can rely on the POU suppressor to handle lower voltage surges, or to bring the big ones down to a more manageable 330v.
Other considerations: how many phases does it protect? Cheap suppressors are generally single-phase, meaning they divert surges that occur between the hot and neutral wires. Better ones are 3-phase. They also handle surges between hot and ground, and ground and neutral.
Despite all the hype surrounding series-mode suppressors, like the infamous Surgex tested by Amir, these are all just single-phase. I've read that most surges do occur between hot and neutral, but I have no idea how rare the other kinds are.
Since MOVs are mortal, the best suppressors stop you from using them when they're burned out. The FS140 has alarms and flashing lights. Some POU suppressors are designed to just stop letting power through when they die. These features are worth considering.
Also: I'm not convinced by the recommendation to just let homeowner's insurance take care of the problem. This would work if you had a catastrophic surge that friend many things at once. But my understanding is that much surge damage is cumulative. It can manifest as your dryer stopping working for no apparent reason one day. You'll never know for sure if it's from cumulative surge damage, so you really can't make a claim. Also, when things die one at a time, they'll probably fall below your deductible.
I'm about to install a Siemens FS140 at the panel, but plan to still use point-of-use suppressors for expensive electronics. Here's why:
There's a critical metric with suppressors that manufacturers often hide deep in the spec sheets: clamping voltage (also called voltage protection rating, or VPR). This is the maximum voltage that the suppressor will let through. The number is typically higher than you'd hope .
In fact, the lowest VPR you'll see on any suppressor is 330v. For whole house units, it's higher. The Siemens FS140 is rated at 600v, which is the lowest of any whole-house suppressor I've found. But that's still a lot of volts! It's easy to imagine it causing problems for more sensitive circuits downstream.
Cheap point-of-use suppressors are typically worse. Often over 800v. But some of the better brands (like APC) make ones as low as 330v, and these are typically mid-priced, like in the $30–$70 range.
The other important metric is the maximum amperage. Cheap suppressors list energy instead (in Joules); for whatever reason the commercial units use amps. The FS140 is rated at 140,000 amps, which would also correspond with a high joule rating, if they bothered to give it.
So it makes sense to use something like the Siemens unit as the first line of defense, to divert surges that would turn your point-of-use suppressor into a fireworks display. Then you can rely on the POU suppressor to handle lower voltage surges, or to bring the big ones down to a more manageable 330v.
Other considerations: how many phases does it protect? Cheap suppressors are generally single-phase, meaning they divert surges that occur between the hot and neutral wires. Better ones are 3-phase. They also handle surges between hot and ground, and ground and neutral.
Despite all the hype surrounding series-mode suppressors, like the infamous Surgex tested by Amir, these are all just single-phase. I've read that most surges do occur between hot and neutral, but I have no idea how rare the other kinds are.
Since MOVs are mortal, the best suppressors stop you from using them when they're burned out. The FS140 has alarms and flashing lights. Some POU suppressors are designed to just stop letting power through when they die. These features are worth considering.
Also: I'm not convinced by the recommendation to just let homeowner's insurance take care of the problem. This would work if you had a catastrophic surge that friend many things at once. But my understanding is that much surge damage is cumulative. It can manifest as your dryer stopping working for no apparent reason one day. You'll never know for sure if it's from cumulative surge damage, so you really can't make a claim. Also, when things die one at a time, they'll probably fall below your deductible.
Speedskater
Major Contributor
I just noticed that NEC 2020 & 2023 now require a whole home surge protector.
dedobot
Active Member
I don't think such thing exist , at least under 5 digits sum. Even the "enterprise" on-line ups units can't do the job. Simply course they're are not intended for that. The best approach is well made electrical installation with real ground , GFCI .. everything at government standards. My humble opinion.
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