OLEV Installation Auditor problems

Manufacturers should install Voltage surge preventative devices in their equipment if that can be damaged in service. It would not cost much.

I suspect it gets trickier once you start digging into the detail. There are different types of SPDs for different situations - worst case (say a building with lightning protection) you'd need type 1s to deal with the initial strikes, type 2s to deal with the surge that got past the type 1s and type 3s for the electronics. Type 1+2+3 SPDs aren't often found close to the word 'cheap'. Then if you had to repeat the same for the dozens of items with electronics in them in a typically installation, installation-level SPDs start to look attractive.

There's also a complication with devices that have more than one connection - e.g. charge points with a wired Ethernet port (or modem type devices), TVs/set-top-boxes with aerial connections - if you have an SPD in the device then surges are shorted to earth at that point - so drawing the large surge currents through other devices in between (e.g. Ethernet network gear, aerial amplifiers and so on) - so they can get fried whereas before they quite likely survived. (I had a bad (expensive) experience with a phone system years back - twice one particular internal line got fried during thunder storms - the one that had a surge-protected PC & modem on it - relocating the surge protection on the phone line to before the PBX solved it). What would happen to an RCBO that had no upstream SPD protection where an appliance shorted a surge to Earth internally? A co-ordinated approach over the whole installation can save a lot of bother.

   - Andy.

So, as in the old days with t.v. aerial concerns, during a thunder storm just unplug all non essential mains equipment or power it by batteries.

phonefault.com/.../

So, as in the old days with t.v. aerial concerns, during a thunder storm just unplug all non essential mains equipment or power it by batteries.

phonefault.com/.../