Whole House Surge Absorber.


I just installed myself "whole house" surge protector. I've already lost garage door opener due to line spikes last winter. Siemens style panel protector takes space of two standard circuit breakers - dual circuit breaker with built in MOV type surge arresters. Taking two spaces in my panel allows to suppress voltage spikes between each phase to ground and between two phases. Installation was very simple - placing double breaker in place of two singles and connecting thick ground wire to ground bar. Two green LEDs show active protection. Siemens recommends using it as additional protection when expensive electronic equipment is involved. I have all my gear plugged into Furman Elite 20PFI conditioner that has very tight non-sacrificial surge protection. My gear (DAC+Class D amp) is powered 24/7 but I always unplug it during thunderstorms. How do you protect your gear?
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Showing 1 response by almarg

I had my entire service panel replaced about two years ago. Per his company's standard practice, the electrician put in two ground rods, located about five or six feet apart. He also installed a Sycom SYC-120/240TC whole house surge protector, which appears to be generally similar to this model except that its label indicates that it is rated for a surge current of 150,000 amps. It is mounted on the side of the breaker panel.

For the audio system itself, like a number of other members here I use this Brick Wall "series mode" non-sacrificial surge suppressor/line filter. Its eight outlets are not quite sufficient for my purposes, so I use a Hammond power strip to multiply one of its outlets, plugging the less critical components into that. In addition to surge protection the Brick Wall also provides some degree of noise filtering (specs shown at the link), both on the incoming AC and between its four duplex outlet pairs.

Best regards,
-- Al