Browse Forums DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair Re: Safety switches/surge protection 2Aug 09, 2010 5:23 pm Dear J.K. Rowling, Your books are entirely unrealistic. I mean, a ginger kid with two friends? Sincerely, Anonymous Re: Safety switches/surge protection 8Aug 10, 2010 11:49 am grom40 Think I might look at one of the modules you can have fitted to the switch board; Surges are energy that seeks earth. Either you connect that energy harmlessly to earth. Or that energy is inside hunting for earth destructively via appliances. Nothing - nothing stops a surge. That current will flow not matter what. Voltage increases as necessary to blow through anything that might stop it. Power boards are too far away from earth. Either a power board must stop or absorb a surge. Or simply give the surge even more paths to find earth via nearby appliances. Critical is something called wire impedance. Every meter of wire increases impedance. Also sharp wire bends, splices, and wire inside metallic conduit. Impedance to earth must be as low as possible. If the connection from switch board to earth is more than 3 meter, impedance is too high. The switch board may be earthed for AC electricity. But not earthed for surge protection. Impedance is why power boards do not even claim surge protection in their numeric specs. Impedance is why a connection from power switch board to earth must be so short. And the ground must be single point ground. Every wire that enters the building must connect (also short) to that ground. For example cable TV and satellite dish need no protector. That connection to earth is made only with wire. Every wire in the telephone cable also must connect short to that single point ground. But if connected directly, then phones do not work. So telephone makes a connection via a 'whole house' protector. Chances are this is all so new that you should stop. And reread up to this point. It may take multiple rereads to understand what does protection - and it is not some magic box you clip in or plug-in. For that 'whole house' protector (ie from Clipsal) to work, you must upgrade earthing. No protector does protection. If you did not yet understand that, then reread from the top. No protector does protection. A protector only connects surges to what does all the protection. Single point earth ground. How to make any protector better? Make the connection to earth ground even much shorter than 3 meters. Expand that earthing network. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground. If a protector, its short connection to, and earth ground is insufficient, then a surge will be inside hunting for earth destructively via appliances. It is that simple. Either energy dissipates harmlessly outside the building. Or appliances are damaged. A protector is as effective as the only thing that does protection - earth ground. Do you see protecton in terms of a magic box - ie a power board? Or see it in terms of the only item always reqired in every protection system - single point earth ground. I am planning to get shelly dimmers added to the non-smart switches that control light. It has no affect on the mechanical functioning of the switch and this is wired… 1 1429 Hi everyone. I am a single mother with little daughter, living in a small tourist town in WA Australia. I am thinking to install security screens to all the doors and… 0 22749 Hi , I'm currently going through this now within the Whitehorse council which has a similar set of restrictions. We're having to make compromises with our floor plan due… 3 30668 |