A friend with a new state of the art super high tech electronic dash computer controlled washer claims it is best to power the beast thru a surge suppressor.
Was wondering if the learned members of this group thought this was a good idea or a not so good idea.
Steve
I power my whole house through a surge protector
That depends on what you think you'll be protecting against, whether your utilities are overhead or below grade, where the nearest step-down Xformer is for your little feed (usually, ~4 homes in a cluster).
It also depends on the quality of surge protector you install.
Many are just "surge protectors" in name, only.
Not a bad plan, just be sure your grounding electrode system is up to the task. Point of use protectors are basically for devices that have multiple inputs but are still just to catch things a robust array point of entry protectors missed.
Anything you do to minimize voltage spikes on your power line is a good thing...just keep in mind that the typical surge suppression device needs a good path to ground to function properly.
FWIW, most homes don't have a good ground system. You'll typically find the outdoor connection from the #6 ground wire to the ground rod is loose and/or corroded.
Not really. A surge suppressor is simply an MOV which will shunt voltage spikes.
So is one of these safer than the other?
In my case, I'm the 8th townhouse from the xformer. 7 x 22 feet is
154 feet. Does this mean the first house is the most vulnerable and it gets less as the distance increases?SPINOs?
philo: "MOV"?
Metal Oxide Varistor
Which doesn't diminish what it's purpose is and it's effectiveness.
But a new washing machine isn't the only electronics in the house. Like Gfre says, best strategy is a whole house surge protector at the panel or meter, with point-of-use type at eqpt that is also connected to other lines, eg cable, phone, etc. If you're in a situation where you can't put one on the panel, then point-of-use at the washer can offer protection, but it's not the preferred solution.
And why did you start a whole new thread?
Below grade is obviously safer, it can't get a direct hit from lightning like overhead wired going to a house.
I wouldn't worry about it. I doubt it makes much, if any difference and I'm sure you won't see any data one way or the other. I've never seen any surge protection experts have it enter into the discussion for how you protect your home.
If a washer needs protection, then so does every household item including c locks, RCD, furnace, recharging phones, and the most critical item during a surge - smoke detectors. Nothing adjacent to an appliance claims to prote ct from destructive surges. Protection means a surge is connected to earth BEFORE it enters a building. No way around that well proven science.
Does not matter if AC service is overhead or underground. Risk from surges (lightning and other sources) remains. Even underground wires can carry a direct lightning strike into a building. Every wire in every incoming cab le must connect to single point earth ground BEFORE entering. Otherwise a surge is inside hunting for earth destructively via appliances. Earth grou nd (not a protector) is the most critical component in every protection 'sy stem'.
What does an adjacent protector do? MOVs might connect that surge from hot wire to neutral or safety ground wires. Now that surge has even more path s to find earth ground destructively via a washer or other nearby appliance . Adjacent protectors can even make damage easier if a 'whole house' solut ion is not implemented.
All appliances contain robust protection. Your concern is a rare transient that might occur once every seven years. That transient must be connected low impedance (ie less than 3 meters) to earth BEFORE entering. Otherwise it will go hunting for earth destructively via appliances. Nothing adjace nt to an appliance claims to 'block' or 'absorb' that transient. If anythi ng needs that protection, then everything needs that protection.
clocks, RCD, furnace, recharging phones, and the most critical item during a surge - smoke detectors. Nothing adjacent to an appliance claims to pro tect from destructive surges. Protection means a surge is connected to ear th BEFORE it enters a building. No way around that well proven science.
es (lightning and other sources) remains.
Sure it remains. But it does matter. With an underground service, the lines leading from the street to the house, the masthead, etc are not present and can't be hit by a direct lightning strike. Less target is better than more target.
Even underground wires can carry a direct lightning strike into a buildin g. Every wire in every incoming cable must connect to single point earth g round BEFORE entering. Otherwise a surge is inside hunting for earth destr uctively via appliances. Earth ground (not a protector) is the most critic al component in every protection 'system'.
ot wire to neutral or safety ground wires. Now that surge has even more pa ths to find earth ground destructively via a washer or other nearby applian ce. Adjacent protectors can even make damage easier if a 'whole house' sol ution is not implemented.
You can listen to Tom or you can read what the electrical engineers that specialize in surge protection say at IEEE and NIST. Both groups say that point-of-use surge protectors do work, endorse them as part of a tiere d approach and standalone too.
Not as robust as the protection in a quality plug-in surge protector.
That transient must be connected low impedance (ie less than 3 meters) to earth BEFORE entering. Otherwise it will go hunting for earth destructive ly via appliances. Nothing adjacent to an appliance claims to 'block' or ' absorb' that transient. If anything needs that protection, then everything needs that >protection.
Plug-ins/point-of-use work by clamping all the inputs to the same level.
I'm sure the usual W Tom rant will be forthcoming.
Square D panel mounted durge protector on underground service 120 feet from the transformer. OK - so I KNOW it's overkill -and my computers are protected on dual conversion UPS units too.
There is all kinds of "surge protection" including line to neutral and line to ground shunting, as well as reactive chokes
Pre-entry is definitely best (whole house mprotection) My smoke detectors are all battery operated - so no problem there. People tend to protect the more expensive and critical cevices.
The chance of a "direct hit" on an underground service is a LOT less than an overhead, and unserground does not act as much as an antenna for a "near strike"
POU protectors protect against highn transients that either get through or are caused inside the house
Your assumption that all appliances contain robust protection is open to discussion. and dissagreement.
Tom sells whole house protection and you definitely need it, connected to a good grounding electrode. The only thing Tom disagrees about is whether a point of use protector does anything. I do believe it will damp out locally induced shots that get into the system after it enters the house. That would typically be an EMP that comes from lightning hitting a tree in the back yard. I have survived direct hits on a weather station on my garage ... twice ... but I have pretty good protection in several layers including on the signal line from the weather station..
Many years the utility pole directly behind my house got a direct lightning hit. I was in the kitchen and almost lost it when I observed the simultaneous lightning and thunder!
My answering machine was on the closest run to the outdoor wiring and was taken out...but nothing else in the house was damaged.
As a kid, I used to play the "5 second game" (flash-to-sound) during Tstorms. One evening, the house "shook" as I saw the flash. I.e., too startled to even think of "counting". Of course, had I tried to count, I wouldn't have made it past "0"! :>
Next morning, noticed lots of bark on the ground beneath one of the walnut trees adjacent to the living room. "That's odd". Looked up to see the bark peeled off one side of the tree all the way to the top! "Ah! That must have been what shook the house!"
We had a "nearby" strike when living in Denver (no idea how close it was as I was at work at the time). It took out the protection network in one of our (cheap) "electronic" telephones -- resulting in a perpetual off-hook indication (annoying cuz every time I tried to call home, the line was "busy"!). Also magnetized the screen in our TV. Took many weeks of the built-in degausser operating to restore color purity!
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