Environmental Potentials whole house surge protection, can I get your opinions?

If warranty proved anything, then GM products have always been superior to Honda and Toyota.  Good luck getting every GM warranty honored.  Dealers,. too often, get stuck with costs.  So dealers will do anything to avoid honoring that warranty.

A lesson from free market economics - in numerous industries.  A best warranty often indicates an inferior product.  Salesmen will do anything to make a sale.

Protection for over 100 years has always been about where hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly dissipate.  Only one item has always existed in every protection 'system':  earth ground.  A protector is only as effective as its earth ground.  A plug-in protector does not have and will not discuss that low impedance connection to earth.

Best protection (that is also a least expensive solution) is properly earthed 'whole house' protector.   Then a homeowner inspects THE most critical item in that solution.  Every incoming wire (TV cable, satellite dish, telephone, OTA antenna - every) must connect low impedance to single point earth ground.

That is only 'secondary' protection. An informed homeowner also inspects their 'primary' surge protection layer.

All this described previously with spec numbers.  Numbers separate an informed recommendation from those who recite advertising, hearsay, and wild speculation.  Who even mistakenly believe a warranty rather than specification numbers.

Protection is always about where hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly dissipate.  Then protection even from direct lightning strikes remains functional for decades.  Because protection is only as effective as its only required and so essential component - earth ground.  Not wall receptacle safety ground.  Earth ground.

Well here are some numbers from Furman for the P-2400 IT that not only protects your equipment but provides clean balanced power as well.....

Maximum Surge Current:6,500 Amps
Response Time:1 nanosecond
Spike Clamping Voltage:188 VAC peak @ 3,000 Amps

and here's the link...

http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=P-2400IT

I guess in  my mind if over 6500 amps gets past my Square D 20 amp breaker to my equipment in under 1 nanosecond then I just have to give up and call the insurance company. There are no absolutes. If the surge is due to a nuclear strike then you have much bigger problems than your audio equipment. Just sayin'!
 

The time is a little misleading.

The surge protection is always on, however it has a clamping mode. It's deceptive (or overtly conservative) because the surge protection slows the surge down by a huge amount. The clamp time and clamping voltage (188V) are severely below a damaging surge's potential.

This is different than a parallel circuit where it does NOTHING for several milliseconds (or whatever) and then becomes a short to ground.By that time your gear has already felt possibly several thousand volts.

Best,


Erik

It may help to understand that a SMP acts like a low pass filter. It is always in the circuit, and has a -3 dB point of around 3 kHz. That’s really really good since most EMI/RFI filters start working at around 100 kHz.

The low-pass filter is always there, and causes any very fast surges to present themselves as voltages across the protection device but NOT your appliance regardless of the speed of the surge itself. At the appliance, just like in a speaker, this will slow down the rise time of the surge, giving the rest of the device time to clamp on and further limit the voltage.

I believe, and it's been a while, that the 1 nanosecond time, refers to the time for the SMP to add a pole. That is, it goes from a 1-st order to 2-nd order filter, or something like that. Thanks to the low-pass effect, it has plenty of time to do this before issues arise.

This issue is timely for me since it looks like I’m finally moving from NY to Austin. I will be hiring an electrical contractor there for a build out. (I guess I need to buy the building first but planning is part of the process of selecting the right property/zoning/service for what I want to accomplish). @jea48 - you’ve always been a terrifically knowledgeable resource on matters electrical. I’ve sent you a PM. Could you take a look when you have a minute?
regards to every one here- good holiday if you celebrate--looking forward to carrying on soon from Texas!
bill hart