@dpop That is an excellent idea. As you know, for the sake of others who may read this, you may not have separate grounds, but so long as you bond everything at the same ground potential you may run multiple ground conductors to the same grounding rod(s), which probably should be plural.
Why whole house surge protectors are not enough
TL;DR:
One measure of a surge protector is the clamping voltage. That is, at what voltage does the surge protector actually start to work. Whole house surge protectors are limited to no less than ~ 600 Volts (instantaneous) between a leg and neutral or ground. That’s up to 1,200V if symmetrical.
The best surge protecting strips and conditioners clamp below 200 Volts.
Please keep this in mind when deciding whether or not to use surge protectors at your PC, stereo, TV, etc. in addition to a whole house unit.
I wrote more about this here:
https://inatinear.blogspot.com/2021/09/time-for-new-surge-suppression.html
No manufacturer of whole house surge protection claims that their devices alone are enough for sensitive electronics when you check the fine print.
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@erik_squires Yes, already aware, and yes, for the sake of others. One other thing (that I learned in broadcast engineering): many times a lighting strike discharge does not like to take corners. Straight wires (with the least amount of bends) are always encouraged when designing grounds that will dissipate and discharge lightning strikes quickly into the ground. Also, due to the skin effect of wire at certain frequencies, and the general frequency (spectrum) of a typical lightning strike; in the broadcast world, we almost always use 3"- 5" copper strap (very low resistance with lots of surface area) when dealing with lightning and grounding. |
Here's another surge protector that has a very low (specified) clamping voltage (135V), as compared to many other surge protectors that don't clamp until 300 volts, or even as high as 600 volts. The linked surge protector may be marketed as a refrigerator surge protector, but it could still be used for audio and video surge protection, especially since it has a very low clamping voltage. |
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