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Posted by Charles Schuler on December 15, 2006, 5:46 pm
> We're moving into a house that has older two-wire ungrounded wiring.
> Short of the expense of rewiring the entire house, I'd like to make it
> as safe as possible for people and equipment. I've already put in GFCI
> outlets in bathrooms, kitchen, garage, outdoor locations. So from a
> people safety perspective I think that's about as good as we can do,
> and grounding would not improve that situation.
>
> Now for equipment, I'm thinking about a panel-based whole house surge
> suppressor, since the lack of grounding will defeat any point-of-use
> surge suppressors. There seem to be quite a few units available with
> similar specs: clamping voltages in the 400-500V range, energy
> dissipation on the order of 1000 joules, maximum current 50,000 amps,
> <5 ns response. One example is the Intermatic 1G1240R. These seem to
> generally be described as sufficient for protecting appliances but the
> vendors still recommend point-of-use surge suppressors for electronic
> equipment.
>
> There is also a product sold by Tytewadd, which clamps at 130V, maximum
> current 10,000 amps, and 1.5 ns response. It is specifically
> advertised as protection for "sensitive equipment". But... it has a
> total energy dissipation of only 70 joules, far far less than the
> previous class of units.
>
> Does anyone have experience with the Tytewadd devices? They're not
> that cheap -- $150. I'm in a generally low-lightning-risk location
> (Northern California, bay area) so maybe this kind of moderate
> protection is sufficient. But 70 joules is less than the specs on a
> rinky dink power strip. Should I save my money, ask an electrician to
> rewire a couple outlets in key locations, and stick with power strip
> surge suppressors?
Whole-house surge suppression is a good idea and that is based on personal
experience.
130 volt clamp is too low. 70 joules is too low.
There was no Internet when I installed my first unit and I went to the best
electrical supply house in my vicinity and talked to those folks. Now, you
can Google this to death.
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