Surge Protect Lighting Systems

Protect Breaker Panels Feeding Lighting Panels
The first step in protecting a lighting system is to protect the breaker panel feeding the lighting system equipment. No matter how many circuits are feeding your lighting system the one TPX surge suppressor at each panel will protect against incoming and cross circuit transient generated by equipment internal to the house.

Additional Protection At The Lighting Panel
An additional TPX surge suppression unit can be install on lighting systems that have a common buss and breakers. This means when you have a common buss feeding lighting loads an additional surge suppressor can be installed in parallel to the system. This will not only give additional protection the system from upstream panels but also surge protect and filter the lighting system from cross circuit transients generated by the lighting loads.

Landscape Lighting Pathways
Count individual circuits that leave the building exposing a smart lighting switch or smart lighting module that requires protection. If you have a transformer you may want to protect on the line side of the transformer to use one unit to protect lighting system inside the building. If you want to protect the transformer you would then need to protect all pathways coming back into the transformer. The cost of the transformer may not be enough to warrant protecting depending on how many times connections/pathways you have feeding outdoor pathways

Lighting System Keypads, Programmable Links, Dimming busses
Count keypads, dimming bus, sensors, power supplies and contact closure wire pathways as they enter or leave a building. We also recommend protecting equipment in problems areas or long runs that connect network equipment powered from a separate breaker panel. This usually means there are unprotected 24V, 120V or 240 volt pathways coming into your dimming modules from outside the structure. If these lightning surges get to the dimming modules they can ultimately spread throughout the home damaging lighting and home automation systems on the way to ground. The fix is easy!

Why Surge Protect Lighting
Electricity is essential to our lifestyle. So much of what we do at home, work and play depends on it. When you flip the switch on a lighting system, you expect the lights to come on. But, if you have not protected the electronic controls to the lighting system with panel mounted surge suppression, the lights may not come on because the circuit boards in the controls have been damaged by surge or lightning activity.

How It Works
Everyone knows to protect computers and TV sets with rack mount or plug in strip surge suppression. But the hardwired Crestron controls that operate the lighting system in the home have the same type of sensitive circuit boards and chips as found in new computers and HDTVs. But, unlike a computer or TV, you normally cannot protect the Crestron lighting controls with plug in suppression devices. However, a strategic transient protection design system will! By first starting with a power filter model TK-TTLP-1S240-FL panel mount suppressor can easily be installed on the panel feeding the lighting controls. This same unit will also protect the homeowner’s investment in the LED lights, home automation system, and all other equipment fed from the protected panel. The processor should also be protected from surges riding in on the landscape lighting or coming in on remote interface wires. See an example design diagram protecting a lighting system here.

Benefits
The power utility company supplies us with power to run light bulbs and motors. The power utility is not responsible to supply computer grade power to run electronics. Nor is the power utility responsible for what the equipment inside the building are doing to each other. Helping the client understand this is beneficial to everyone involved on the job. The Systems Integrator is dealing with every system in the house, and the house must deal with what mother nature throws at it. No electrical system is perfect, and your equipment needs protection from lightning damage and internally generated transients that overtime take a toll on electronics. If something fails once and nothing is done to prevent it, chances are it is going to fail again. To change the status quo and surge protect against the same thing from happening again is in everyone’s best interest. When the customer is made aware of all the pathways that lightning can enter the facility on, understanding what can be done to prevent certain types of damage will get easier. Eliminate these problems and it will not take long for the customer to realize that being protected is better than being exposed!