Tips and technical advice from Kevin Jozefowicz, Strateres Training and Product Specialist
I specced a surge eliminator in the equipment rack……I’m all set, right?
- According to NEMA, up to 80 percent of all surges originate from inside a building. These are generally quite small and happen as a result of loose wires, malfunctioning appliances, static electricity, load switching, or even when turning on a hair dryer or AC unit. Over time, these seemingly minor surges can damage and thereby shorten the life of electronics.
- Although relatively rare, high-surge events like lightning strikes or power surges from the utility also occur, and cause immediate, large-scale damage to electronics and your home. A high-surge event can also spark a fire, putting everyone inside a home at risk. Those of you with clients on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard are probably familiar with these high-surge events.
As you can see the best protection would come from Surge protection at the service entrance to protect against surges from outside the home. These devices can protect the entire panel or only certain circuits in the panel and the devices are sometimes called “side-cars”.
But what about the connections for cable, IP cameras, entrance gates, outdoor speakers, etc.?
Remember, the voltage will follow the path of least resistance. Point-of-entry surge suppression devices are available for all of those surge entry points.
Last but not least you then need to look at local protection at the rack to protect sensitive equipment from surges occurring from within the home. Surge suppressors come in “brick”, strip, and rackmount configurations and are the most visible line of defense to give your client peace of mind.
visit https://transientprotectiondesign.com/ and https://www.ametekesp.com/surgex for more information on surge protection.