Is My System Toast?

Best thing to do when you loose utility power is unplug your audio equipment from the wall outlet. Then, computers, and everything else that uses micro processors.

Leave unplugged until power comes back and stabilizes. During lightning storms and high winds I wouldn’t plug things back in until the worst is over.

Surge protectors protect from high voltage transients lasting not more than a few microseconds. At best a few milliseconds.

Depending on how long the power is out... When the Utility power is restored it’s like a dead short on the Utility Power System. Air conditioners are all trying to start at the same time. Refrigerators are more than likely trying to start. There is a large inrush draw of current. This may first cause a voltage drop on the Utility power lines which causes more energy to be drawn. This in turn causes the voltage to rise above the normal voltage. As the load starts to level off, stabilize, the voltage will continue to overshoot the normal voltage level. Its the high over voltage event that causes the damage. The event can last several seconds or more. Well above what a whole house or point of use surge protector is designed to protect from.

There are ways to protect from power outages. One way is to use over/under voltage relay(s) that will complete a circuit and energize a shut trip unit and mechanically open a  (shunt trip) breaker.

Downside when the breaker mechanically tripped from an under or over voltage event the breaker must be manually reset. Wouldn’t be a problem for audio equipment. 

This says it will disconnect the connected load from the AC wall outlet mains. Has any one with actual experience?

Elite Series ELITE-20 PF I 20-Amp Ultimate Performance Power Conditioner for Elite Home Theaters

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As for this.

EP2050EE Premium Residential Filter

It say nothing about protecting your home from an overvoltage event that may last seconds or more.

ABSORBS, DISSIPATE & REMOVES with increased capacity

• Transient voltage surges and spikes

Warranty:

FIVE YEAR WARRANTY
• Environmental Potentials will replace or repair any product from the EP-2050 product
line as long as it was not damaged during installation or damaged from faulty
installation.
• EP warranty registration card must be filled out and received by Environmental
Potentials within 15 days of installation.
• This warranty is for the repair or replacement of damaged EP products only.
Environmental Potentials accepts no liability, written or expressed, for the damage that
may have occurred to any other equipment; nor does Environmental Potentials warranty
cover any labor cost associated with replacement of such product.

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@jea48 

Thanks for the additional info. I still suggest a whole house and individual surge protectors are better than nothing. 

Can you recommend any whole-house devices for these prolonged spikes?

Can you recommend any whole-house devices for these prolonged spikes?

Just what I mentioned in my last post. 

@tcutter 

There are two  whole house Type 2 SPD that draw a lot of attention on audio forums. 

The Eaton 108kA Whole Home Surge Protection Device (CHSPT2ULTRA)

From their warranty:

Failure due to direct lightning strikes and temporary
over-voltage are not covered

I have the Eaton (CHSPT2ULTRA)

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Siemens

Boltshield FSPD 140kA, Single Phase, Type-2 Surge Protective Device

1. Siemens Surge Protection Device (“SPD”) Limited Warranty
During the period stated below in Table 1 (the “Warranty Term”) and subject to the terms and conditions contained below, Siemens Industry, Inc. (“Siemens”) warrants that the SPD is free from any material defects in design, manufacturing, materials and workmanship and further
warrants the SPD against damage incurred by an electrical surge as defined by IEEE C62.41
(except and excluding any sustained over-voltage and any direct lightning strike).

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Note, neither will protect from an overvoltage event. 

Usually what happens a temporary overvoltage will fry a type 2 whole house SPD. Point of use Type 3 as well. 

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What Are Surges

In general a surge is a transient wave of current, voltage or power in an electric circuit.  In power systems in particular – and this is likely the most common context that we relate surges to – a surge, or transient, is a subcycle overvoltage with a duration of less than a half-cycle of the normal voltage waveform.  A surge can be either positive or negative polarity, can be additive or subtractive from the normal voltage waveform, and is often oscillatory and decaying over time.

Surges, or transients, are brief overvoltage spikes or disturbances on a power waveform that can damage, degrade, or destroy electronic equipment within any home, commercial building, industrial, or manufacturing facility. Transients can reach amplitudes of tens of thousands of volts.  Surges are generally measured in microseconds.

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Overvoltage Therein a temporary overvoltage.

 

People will blame a whole house SPD for not protecting electronic devices in the  home when there is a Utility Power Failure. The SPD is not designed to protect if there is an overvoltage event that lasts for more than milliseconds in duration. 

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@jea48 

I apreciate the limitations of my EP and your Eaton devices. Could you be more specific in terms of a recommendation for a whole house prolonged voltage spike protector? That is, do you have a manufacturer and a model number?

Could you be more specific in terms of a recommendation for a whole house prolonged voltage spike protector? That is, do you have a manufacturer and a model number?

I am not aware of one that would work like a whole house Type 2 SPD, (Surge Protection Device). 

How would you clamp a temporary, sustained, overvoltage? The overvoltage surge is real available power... A temporary, sustained, overvoltage event could last seconds, minutes or longer... It’s not like a high voltage transient surge that has a life span in microseconds. (Going from memory the Eaton Type 2 SPD reacts to a high voltage transient surge in one nano second or less. That’s fast!  And that’s why the big name manufacturers use Multiple MOVs in their Type 2 SPDs. 

Not all temporary, sustained overvoltage events are caused from Utility Power coming back on Line. (And that doesn’t happen every time.) Some overvoltage events are caused by high voltage power lines coming down on low voltage power lines. Causes? Wind, fires, falling big tree limbs, vehicles hitting power poles.

Then another, more localized temporary, sustained overvoltage event is a loose and or corroded, or open, neutral service conductor. This can be at the secondary side of the Utility Power Transformer, at the overhead service weather head connection, in the meter socket, or at the main electrical service equipment panel. A loose and or corroded, or open, service neutral can take out audio equipment pretty quick. Along with any other electronic devices on the higher voltage Hot leg.

 

The electricity in my town went out the other day for a short time.

Town ? Not City? Small town? May be with its own Generating Power Plant?