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Surge protection - monitoring effectiveness.

Ok, so folk are all going mad and fitting SPD consumer units et al.

BUT - How effective will they actually be?

In other words, what steps are in place to monitor and record the effectiveness of these devices?

So the flag turns from green to red over time, yet the consumer unit continues to deliver regardless, and the customer notices nothing changing, in the same way that they never test RCDs by using the test button.

How will we ever know whether or not these devices are actually worth the money? Or is it a case of another successful snake oil sale?

How long will it be before a future EICR flags up the fact that the SPD has 'died'.?

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0 Simon Barker over 5 years ago

whjohnson:

Sounds like loss of data server to a business to me.

Anyway, I do have to ask why an externally originated event such as a 'surge' has to be mitigated by the end user rather than the generator?

It seems that it is yet again a risk transfer from the DNO's insurance lawyers to that of the small man at the end of the chain,i.e. us.

"Make em fit SPDs and let their insurers pay out instead of ours" seems to be the outcome of a successful lobbying exercise by the power companies to the wiring regs committee.

Because lightning strikes aren't the fault of the DNO, and there's not a lot they can realistically do to prevent them. We could all pay extra on our electricity bolls to pay the DNOs to install surge protectors all over the place, but is that really any improvement?

How do these things mitigate a surge when an isolation transformer is in cct? Surely the rise in energy in the primary is replicated to a degree in the secondary depending upon the turns ration? If this is the case, then surely there is still risk of damage to any electronics downstream?

How about the effects upon a step-up transfomer too?

Effectively, the surge protector shorts out your supply for a moment if the voltage significantly exceeds what it should be. It relies on the line impedance to limit the current. Once the surge protector has absorbed one to many spikes, it goes pop and stops working.
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0 Simon Barker over 5 years ago

whjohnson:

Sounds like loss of data server to a business to me.

Anyway, I do have to ask why an externally originated event such as a 'surge' has to be mitigated by the end user rather than the generator?

It seems that it is yet again a risk transfer from the DNO's insurance lawyers to that of the small man at the end of the chain,i.e. us.

"Make em fit SPDs and let their insurers pay out instead of ours" seems to be the outcome of a successful lobbying exercise by the power companies to the wiring regs committee.

Because lightning strikes aren't the fault of the DNO, and there's not a lot they can realistically do to prevent them. We could all pay extra on our electricity bolls to pay the DNOs to install surge protectors all over the place, but is that really any improvement?

How do these things mitigate a surge when an isolation transformer is in cct? Surely the rise in energy in the primary is replicated to a degree in the secondary depending upon the turns ration? If this is the case, then surely there is still risk of damage to any electronics downstream?

How about the effects upon a step-up transfomer too?

Effectively, the surge protector shorts out your supply for a moment if the voltage significantly exceeds what it should be. It relies on the line impedance to limit the current. Once the surge protector has absorbed one to many spikes, it goes pop and stops working.
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Surge protection - monitoring effectiveness.

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