Surge Protect All Breaker Panels

Protect All Breaker Panels
Count all breaker panels including sub panels. An additional unit can be installed at the service entrance, if there is a service entrance location where the unit can be installed. Amperage of the panel does not matter. One unit should be installed on every breaker panel in the building. Additional protection can be placed at disconnects and transfer switches please see the TPX and its compact version for more options.

Why Surge Protect Each Electrical Panel In A Building?
Every year more and more engineers and designers offer surge suppression to protect electrical panels in the building. Today more than ever all buildings that contain electronics need protection from externally and internally generated transient surges. This webpage contains information on the need to protect every electrical breaker panel in the building and not just at the service entrance panel. While suppressors installed on service entrance panels will address external transients such as lightning or utility generated surges, only the sub panel units can stop the internally generated transients caused by operation of HVAC equipment, and all other equipment in the building. Plus, if lightning should strike the building or near the building and inductively couple onto the building’s electrical wiring, if no suppressor is located on the branch panel that the wire is run from, the energy from the lightning could go back to that branch panel and spread out to the other circuits on that panel. Installing panel mount suppression units on both upstream and downstream panels is in accord with the IEEE recommended practices.

How It Works
The service entrance suppressor takes the extremely high voltage and current of an externally generated surge or lightning impulse and reduces it down to a much lower level (e.g. per IEEE C62.41-2005, the peak values for a Location Category C Combination Wave are 10,000V/10,000A). Then, the suppressor on the sub panel acts as the final stage to further reduce the externally generated surge down to a negligible level. And, if the panel mount suppressor also has an Enhanced Transient Filter, the filter will continuously work to clean up all of the internally generated ring wave transients that adversely affect electronics, whether located in HVAC controls, LED drivers, digital controls for appliances, lighting and home automation systems, or computers, printers, TVs, stereos (and all other consumer electronics).

Benefits
Protecting all the electrical panels protects the electrical system, protects all the appliances, extends the life of all electrical equipment, and should be the number one priority in protecting any building. The quality panel mount suppressor with enhanced filtering should be part of any transient protection design and will provide the building owner with a quick return on investment. The quality panel mount unit will save the owner money every year and also improve the reliability of any system installed by the custom integrator. Also, the environment will be healthier since we will not be filling up our landfills with e-waste and other prematurely failed electrical and electronic parts and equipment. Whether it is a condo in the city, a home in the suburbs, or a large estate in the country, every electrical panel should be surge protected by a suppression/filter unit.

National Electric Code Recommends Service Entrance Type Surge Protection
NEC recommends AC panel protection along with phone and cable surge protection. This protects and diverts unwanted transient surges from entering the building on incoming power wire, ground wire, phone lines, cable sheathing and center pin pathways. NEC requires that phone and cable company dMark locations to be located and grounded with a maximum five foot ground wire to the service entrance of the building. This makes all grounds short for and limits the voltage developed in the grounding connections during lightning strikes. Its recommended that satellite antenna cables should also be routed past the service entrance and grounded there. This is at times may be difficult to achieve but that does not mean remote grounding points along with a surge suppression diversion can be put in place to achieve adequate protection to bring the home up to NEC standards and IEEE recommended practices for power of sensitive electronic equipment and electronics loads. Areas of the country with dirty and unreliable power from the utility company should also be considered high risk areas. A lightning protection system (which refers to adding ground rods, copper points and down conductors to a building) will greatly reduce the risk of fires caused by lighting however it is inadequate to prevent damage to electrical and electronic satellite equipment.