Whole House Surge Protection: How It Works and What It Does Not Do > 자유게시판

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A surge is a brief spike in voltage. Most are small and frequent, produced inside the house by motors starting and stopping. Some are large and rare, produced by utility switching or lightning striking somewhere on the distribution network.

The small ones matter more than people assume. Modern electronics contain components that degrade under repeated small overvoltages. The failure that eventually happens looks like an ordinary failure, not like surge damage, so the cause goes unrecognised.

A whole house device installs at the panel and clamps voltage that exceeds a threshold, diverting the excess to ground. It sits in parallel with the incoming supply rather than in series, so it does not carry the household load and does not affect normal operation.

There are a few things worth understanding about what it can and cannot do.

It reduces surge energy rather than eliminating it. A panel-mounted device will let some energy through, which is why layered protection is the standard recommendation. The panel device handles the large events, and point-of-use protection at sensitive equipment handles what gets past.

It does not protect against a direct lightning strike to the structure. Nothing at the panel does. Direct strike protection is a different discipline involving air terminals and bonding.

It has a finite life. The components inside absorb energy each time they operate and degrade in the process. Most devices include an indicator light showing whether the protection is still functional. That indicator is worth checking occasionally, because the device continues to pass power normally after its protection has been used up.

It only protects what comes in through the electrical service. Surges also travel in on coaxial and telephone lines, and equipment connected to both needs both protected or the surge simply routes around the protection.

The current code cycle requires this protection on new and replaced services in dwellings, which reflects how much of a modern home is electronics rather than motors and heating elements.

Installation is a panel job. It requires a dedicated breaker and short lead lengths, because long leads reduce effectiveness considerably.

For more detail, see reference