The use of a plug in surge suppressor or rack mount Surge Protective Device (SPD) is a standard part of most AV installations today. Millions of plug in type surge protectors are sold each year to protect the power to computers, printers, stereos, TVs, and other consumer electronics. What is typically missed is the coordination of surge protection at the breaker panel protection. Also missed are protection and proper grounding for incoming and outgoing phone, data, cable and satellite lines, etc.
In today’s home or office, most all electronic equipment and appliances have power supplies and circuit boards that control the equipment. The focus in the past was protection from immediate hardware destruction to power supplies and circuit boards caused by lightning and power company surges. We now discuss how we protect the software from lockups, glitches, gradual hardware stress and latent failures due to circuit chip degradation caused by lightning and other electrical anomalies, whether cause by man or mother nature.
Today you cannot use a plug in surge suppressor to protect all sensitive equipment in the home. This means the best practical way to protect power pathways to all equipment and appliances is to install surge protection units offered by Transient Protection Design on electrical breaker panels feeding electronic equipment. One Transient Protection Design panel mount suppressor installed on the panel not only protects the appliances, but it also protects all other equipment hardwired to that protected breaker panel. So, lights, wall outlets, blenders, garage door openers, garbage disposals, lighting and home automation controls, and all other pieces of equipment are protected by the one panel mount suppressor installed on the breaker panel. This unit will also prevent surges created by equipment on the protected panel (such as when the HVAC compressor cycles on and off) from heading upstream and affecting equipment fed from other panels in the facility. The panel mount unit will also protect equipment from large surges that could ride in on electrical circuits run outside to protect things like pole lights, fountains, pumps, detached garages, landscape lighting, outdoor outlets, kitchens, etc. Take a look at our Whole Home Protection Design Diagram to see more unsafe power pathways. Of course, any incoming or outgoing data and telecom wires would be protected by series wired data and telecom surge suppression units.
Use of a TPD Whole Home Surge Suppression Solution is the most cost effective way to protect equipment. The owner will enjoy lower electrical repair and maintenance costs and downtime, and longer life our of his or her equipment when it is protected by a suppression filter unit. And, even if the owner's most expensive and sensitive AV equipment is already protected by a high quality plug in surge suppressor or rack mount surge suppressor, the panel mount SPD will intercept large surges coming down the line and improve the performance of the smaller plug in strips and allow them to do their job by further reducing the surge energy going to the sensitive AV equipment.This multiple stage protection design is in accord with IEEE recommended practices for powering electronic equipment.
Many fail to consider that when a surge event takes place there is residual damage that may not show up for months or years after any insurance claim has been settled or equipment has been repaired. Then what? How do you estimate the total loss of a surge event when not all losses are evident at the time and then not reimbursable? This “unknown” can be eliminated with a TPD Whole Home Surge Suppression Solution and the TPD Panel Suppressor.
