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Whole house surge protection

I'm thinking of having an electrician install one of these devices at the service entrance of my house. I get frequent thunder storms. Does anyone know what these are made of? Do they use inductors? Reason I'm asking is I do not want any device that can limit dynamics of my audio system. I've looked into ZeroSurge, SurgeX, etc that use SMP, which seem to be ideal compared to devices using MOVs. But all of these use inductors..and some who have used this type of technology have complained of dynamic restriction and collapsing of soundstage. Thanks.
dracule1
dracule1 OP
1,085 posts
 
Jea, IME MOV have given me problems. I've had a strip that used MOVs and it kept tripping my circuit breaker. When I disconnected it, issue solved, but I had no way of knowing if the MOV inside the strip was damaged or still working. Read below.

http://surgex.com/library/92001.html

I think the whole house surge protectors are made of silicon oxide vasistors, which is suppose to be reusable over and over, unlike MOVs.

http://www.deltala.com/modernsurgeprotectors.htm

http://www.geindustrial.com/Newsletter/lightning_arresters_guide.pdf
jea48
4,605 posts
 
I think the whole house surge protectors are made of silicon oxide vasistors, which is suppose to be reusable over and over, unlike MOVs.
02-12-13: 02-12-13: Dracule1

Dracule1,

Not sure about that. I believe most are MOV type.

Eaton (Cutler Hammer), Square D, Leviton, and Siemens, use multiple MOVs.

More reading material.
[url]http://surgelogic.com/home/support/faqs.html[/url]
.
dracule1 OP
1,085 posts
 
Jea, looks like many home surge protection units use MOVs. I asked a master electrician in my area. He recommended the Eaton CSHP Ultra which uses MOVs.
lifeengineer
55 posts
 
If you are really serious get the environmental potentials ep2050 with the ep2750 and be done with it. Check the archives here.
dracule1 OP
1,085 posts
 
Thanks Lifeengineer. I looked into the EP products. Looks very interesting. However, the EP2050 is only rated at 12.5 kA of max surge current. According to my electrician, the higher the max surge current and power rating, the better the protection against catastrophic surge damage. The Eaton CHSP Ultra is rated at 180 kA max surge current and 2880 joules. Not sure how many joules EP2050 is rated at. However, I am very intrigued by the waveform correction and filtering provided by EP products. Don't you think the EP2050 surge protection is somewhat limited?
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