Browse Forums DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair 1 Aug 09, 2010 5:13 pm OK first of all let me admit to being a complete ignoramus when it comes to anything electrical I was just wondering; do new homes come with any power surge protection inbuilt (ie: through the switchboard) or do I have to buy one of those ugly looking protectors for each shiny, new (and no doubt expensive) appliance I have? My Mum's DVD recently got fried by a power surge and the electricity company (whose fault it was) would only pay the depreciated value of the item (which for a 6 year old DVD player was absolutely SFA) so now I'm worried If new homes don't automatically come with something is there something I can get installed by a sparky to protect the whole house? If so about how much would I be looking at? Thanks Re: Safety switches/surge protection 2Aug 09, 2010 5:23 pm We have powerboards with surge protection that we use now. But in the new house we have a safety switch, but i'm assuming that isn't the same thing Dear J.K. Rowling, Your books are entirely unrealistic. I mean, a ginger kid with two friends? Sincerely, Anonymous Re: Safety switches/surge protection 3Aug 09, 2010 5:48 pm Hi, A power surge is a sharp spike up in the voltage, of very short duration, and a safety switch will not usually do much to protect your electronics from it. Electricity suppliers will not guarantee that this won't happen in a domestic supply. http://www.energex.com.au/switched_on/y ... tions.html Safety switches often do have an overcurrent breaker in them as well, but this is slow-acting, and cannot react to a high voltage pulse of a few milliseconds from, say, lightning, or nearby heavy equipment being cycled off and on. The best thing is a good quality powerboard with a surge protector built in. They have circuitry which diverts a high pulse voltage to ground, but which does not act at ordinary voltage levels. Quality brands are anything up to $100 (Belkin Gold 8-way) but mostly they are about $15-$40 for a name brand 4 outlet board. Cheers Re: Safety switches/surge protection 4Aug 09, 2010 6:01 pm A good quality serge board it the best option
I run my computer through 2 boards as the cascade any voltage spikes and I have already made a claim on a single board letting a spike through. I had a belken and they did pay the insurance claim after some lengthy discussions. Re: Safety switches/surge protection 6Aug 10, 2010 12:45 am fazmac Just ask your sparky to put one in your main switchboard. Its easy to do and then your whole house is surge protected. True, much better way to go. Be aware though there are two types. 1 where you have to replace the whole module after a surge has totaly blown the thing (meaning you need a sparkie), the clipsal 970 is a good example of this type and the other where the arrestor module is, in theory user changeable, the clipsal 970RM being an example here. Both have an indicator on the front to show if the unit is still good (green) or needs to be replaced (red). It takes many hits or one massive hit for one of these modules to go 'red'. Either of these will provide far better protection than the surge arrestor power boards the local electronic shops try to peddle but you certainly pay for it. I think you would be looking at around $200 to have one fitted, Re: Safety switches/surge protection 7Aug 10, 2010 10:38 am Thanks for the answers everyone Think I might look at one of the modules you can have fitted to the switch board; when you consider that each power board ("that the electronics retailers try to peddle" - I like that ) is say $50 and you would need at least 4 in a normal household I don't think $200 is too bad cost wise. 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 1421 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 22541 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 30667 |