Surge Protection... - Blu-ray Forum

BMill · 10-03-2017, 12:28 AM

A long overdue response to Vilya, and westom:

1. Houses are built around a proper electrical ground.
2. Series mode surge protectors were designed around a proper electrical ground.
3. Normal MOV based surge protectors shunt to ground, where the surges seek the lowest resistance path to ground, which may be data or video lines.
4. "MOVs: Sacrificial By Design. MOV's function by creating a short circuit (usually to the neutral and the ground) when a preset voltage threshold is exceeded. Essentially they divert surge current away from what the surge protector is protecting. Unfortunately MOV's are sacrificial components. This means that the performance life of any surge protector utilizing this technology is finite. With every surge current diversion above a modest level an MOV comes closer to its inevitable end."
5. Properly licensed series mode surge protectors have A-1-1 Certification. This is the U.S. Government’s highest classification for point of use surge suppression.
- Grade A is the best endurance – 1,000 surges of 6,000 Volts / 3,000 Amps with no degradation.
- Class 1 specifies the best voltage suppression of 330 Volts peak for 6,000 Volts / 3,000 Amps surges.
- Mode 1 is Line to Neutral (L-N) suppression. This avoids ground wire contamination and is recommended for interconnected equipment.
- IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) states that 6000V is the largest transient that the interior of a building would experience.
- IEEE defines its harshest interior surge environment as one that could experience 100 surges of 6000V, 3000A in a years time (category B3).
6. Pictures, or in this case video, say a thousand words:

7. The Figure 3 graph at the following link shows how MOV Whole Building Surge Protectors let through greater voltages. https://zerosurge.com/product-comparisons/
More information can be found here: http://us-tech.com/RelId/1082596/ISv...#39;t_Work.htm
The main data points: "EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) is a research institute which services the power utility industry. They research components and systems for power utilities. They researched systems consisting of a "whole house" surge protector with typically high clamping levels supplemented with lower clamping level point-of-use protectors as recommended by the whole house surge protector suppliers.

EPRI, in a "System Compatibility Research Project" concluded ". . . with the `lower bidder' (lower clamping level) downstream SPD (point-of-use protector) absorbing most of the energy. This means the upstream SPD (whole building surge protector) remains passive: not only a waste of resources, but also a possible problem of inviting the large surge currents to flow deep into the power distribution system, where they can cause interactions with adjacent circuits, defeating one of the benefits of whole-house surge protection.

Their reasoning was simple. The "whole house" and branch circuit protectors typically had a very high let-through voltage or VPR (Voltage Protection Rating) of 700 to 1,000V. A 700V VPR is too high to protect sensitive electronic equipment, requiring a lower 330 to 400V VPR point-of-use protection for optimum protection of these sensitive systems."
8. No whole home surge protector will guarantee against a direct lightning strike.
9. westom likes to say a proper electrical ground is infallible without human error, but things age, and ground connections can age, loosen, or be worn through by animals.
10. If a proper electrical ground is infallible, why are there so many insurance claims, and attempts to claims of warranties on MOV based surge protectors?
11. westom, of your own free will, connect a lightning rod to your power line, before the breaker box, and livestream a direct lightning hit. Then continue to show how every piece of equipment in your house is not attached to a surge protector and is fully working. Theory is one thing, and you like to talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?

Best Blu-ray Movie Deals