8. How to Choose Surge Protection• When a burst of energy is dumped into the grid, a surge results and the voltage at your power point will jump up above
the normal 240V. When the voltage moves above the level that your equipment is designed to handle, damage
results.
• Small surges cause u ulati e da age to ele tro i s a d you o ’t oti e it happe i g. When your computer
perhaps re oots, or later just dies, you o ’t k o that your ai s po er is the ause. The ost o ious i pa t of
surges is when you get a big surge, or spike, and that may immediately kill your equipment.
• A surge is just one of a range of power issues you will see described with terms like spike (same thing, but shorter
duration), sag (voltage drop), transient fluctuation, interruption, line noise, and others. These are all situations where
supplied po er o es outside the ra ge of or al a d is ge erally alled dirty po er.
• What causes surges?
• The most obvious source in Brisbane are lightning strikes. Lightning is a big spark, triggered when the potential
between two locations, normally charged clouds and the earth, grows big enough to cause a mighty spark to arc across
the air. Air is a poor conductor and the lightning will travel along the easiest path, so as it reaches the ground, it will
jump to any tall structure that is more conductive than the air, and then follow a path of least resistance to the ground.
• Lightning does not have to strike a building, or even a nearby power pole, to cause damage. When lightning strikes,
mutual induction results in a boost of up to thousands of volts in nearby cables, including phone and cable internet
wiring. Induction can result in a surge many kilometres from the strike.
• The most common damage caused from lightning originates from distant strikes and results cumulative damage though
moderate surges. As strikes get closer, damage increases to the point that a surge might take out your PC with a single
hit. Surge protectors can still help at that level. A strike that is very close, say on the power pole out the front, will
create such a huge surge that nothing short of unplugging your power and other cables will protect you.
• If a surge protector is a nice little spillway alongside a small and well behaved creek, maybe diverting a bit of water
when the creeks flow gets a bit excitable, then a nearby lightning strike is a tidal wave smashing over the creek and
spillway, drowning the whole region. It will overwhelm everything to hit your equipment. This is why you should
unplug before a storm!
• Other sources of power surges and related issues can include utility based causes such as switching generators or
capacitors on and off, and local issues such as the use of heavy equipment, or even household equipment such as
refrigerators, air conditioners, or fluro lights. Ever hear the click though your Hi Fi when the fridge turns on and
off? Yeah, that’s ot good!
9. How to Choose Surge Protection• How Surge Protectors Work
• There are three basic types of surge protection: SPDs (surge protective devices), line conditioning/filtering units, and data/signal line devices. Each
provides a certain type of protection but what they have in common is that their job is to manage dirty energy. Understand they cannot create or
destroy energy, only work with what comes out of the plug by modifying, diverting, or dissipating energy.
• Domestic surge protectors incorporate a substance that can burn away to dissipate excess energy as heat to handle surges and spikes. When the
voltage rises too high, current is diverted through this component to ground, usually a metal oxide varistor (MOV). The energy consumed by the MOV
allows the main line to come back to normal voltage for your gear, but at the same time the energy will burn away the MOV. This means that once the
sa rifi ial MOV is used up, the surge prote tor o ’t e a le to redu e the oltage to your gear a y lo ger a d ill stop orking as a surge protector,
but will probably keep working as a power board.
• So e surge prote tors i orporate a fuse, so that if the MOV a ’t ha dle the surge, the fuse ill ur out o the li e to your equipment, cutting power
instead of letting a surge through. This will only work once and then surge protector will stop working even as a power board, so they are not common
in domestic protectors.
• More advanced surge protectors incorporate components designed to massage the power signal into a perfect form in order to keep electronic gear
happy. There are many ways to do this and the most effective can be quite expensive to build. Fortunately while this feature is a useful it is less
important for most household electronics than the basic surge protection. It can be of significant benefit to some equipment, but buy a high quality
power supply in your PC, and you can do without in a typical Brisbane house.
• How surges reach your gear
• We see a lot of people who conscientiously unplug their equipment every storm, to only find their computer and modem not working the next day.
• In addition to mains power, any other cable coming into the house can also carry a charge. Phone lines, Foxtel, your roof aerial, and cable internet
connections can all damage attached equipment.
• In extreme cases the surge may pass through a chain of attached electronics. A nearby lightning strike might fry your modem though the phone line,
then run through the network cable to your PCs and kill them as well.
• We see this sort of issue as burned traces and components on the mainboard, originating from the network port.
• When it wasn’t a lightning strike
• Cumulative damage can be caused when power fluctuations are not severe but are still outside the design range for the electronics.
• If these types of issues happen frequently, they will cause ongoing damage to your system components until they fail. This type of damage is called
ele tro i rust a d you a see the result through a i ros ope.
• Many failed parts returned to us do not fail because of normal wear and tear, but rather by excessive wear though dirty power.
• Voltage X Current X Time = Arc Flash = Explosion
• Simple Math - Good for Arithmetic, Bad for the Electrician
• (110 volts times 4 may equal 440 volts, but current is not limited by the voltage )
12. Fire Accident Due to Lightning
We Want India Safe Practice Earthing and
Protection
13. Why Accidents happen?
Accidents generally happen due to lack of
maintenance, lack of Supervision, lack of knowledge,
over confidence and negligence. Accidents may also
happen due to one or more of the following reasons:
Using improper tools
Improper/non usage of protective devices
Lack of proper instructions and supervision
Mental/physical condition of the employee
Poor Judgment
31. Most Efficient Joint Process/Fail Proof as per IEEE 837
It is efficient and superior to all existing
surface –to-surface
mechanical retention connectors.
32. Want to meet Expert in India for Lightning
Protection Instalation in your Facilities