Installing Leviton Whole House Surge Protector

[Doc]

Looking to clarify some points re: installing a Leviton 51110 whole house surge protector from Home Depot.

The surge protector has four leads - two black, one green, one white.

1. From what I understand the blacks need to go to adjacent 20 amp breakers, doesn't matter which goes to which. There aren't two adjacent 20's on my board so I gather 2 more need to be installed?

1b. - If 2 more breakers need to be installed, the available spots are below the already installed breakers. Shouldn't they be as close as possible to the top of the stack of breakers so any surge hits the protector before hitting the rest of the breakers or not necessarily?

1. The instructions specify the white line going to the neutral bus, the green going to the ground bus. However, the schematic seems to show the green and white going to a common ground.

On my box, I've id'd "A" as the neutral bus - the one with the white wires going to it, "B" as the ground bus. Is this correct?

Anyone have experience with this particular unit?

Thanks for all input.

- My breaker box:

- Installation schematic:

- Link to info on this protector at the Leviton site.

[trader4]

It would be very unusal to have an extra breaker there, waiting for someone to come along and need it.

For all reasonable purposes it doesn't matter where on the panel it's connected

How would we know without seeing it?

No experience is required with that unit. The principles and operation are the same

[Doc]

As per my original message -

- My breaker box:

Further info gathering indicates the bus with the square lug at the top is the neutral.

Wondering if anyone has experience with this particular unit as far as it doing what it's supposed to do.

[Ralph Mowery]

You will need to install the new breakers. They do not have to be near the top as the bus for the hot wires are thick enough not to make any differance.

Breakers usually alternate from the left hot wire to the right hot wire as you come down the line. That is why you should install two breakers next to each other. The one on the top right looks to be two single breakers that are connected by a connector so that if one trips, both sides will disconnect. There are some single breakers that take up two slots and only one switch. While this is a single breaker each screw is hooked to the seperate incomming black hot wires. This is for running the 240 volt devices.

The neutral and ground wires should be connected together in the breaker box so it does not really make any differance as to where you connect the white and green wires from the surge protector as far as to neutral and ground. It just looks beter if the white is connected to neutral and green to ground. May need to be that way just to satify the electrical code.

The one labled A is the neutral and your white wire should go there. the one with the bare wires , your B , is the ground and the green wire should go there.

[Bill]

A surge protector works by "shorting" the two hots, shorting each hot to neutral, and each of those to ground. It does this in a split second.

Anyway you have two hots coming in at the top of the panel. Note there is NO MAIN CUT OFF SWITCH! Power will ALWAYS BE LIVE to this panel!!!!

It appears to be a "subpanel" and there should be another panel elsewhere where you can cut off the power to that panel.

If you can't do that and do not understand this, then call an electrician!

Other than that, the two breakers on the upper right are adjacent breakers (each goes to a separate hot). Those are "regular size breakers". The smaller breakers are "space saving breakers". The breaker on the lower left is a regular size breaker. (Space saving... 2 go to one hot, then the next two go to the other hot.)

You can NOT place two wires in one breaker connection, so you need to buy a new "full size" double breaker for that specific brand/model panel. And that double breaker will need to be a certain amperage - like

20 amps or 50 amps or whatever. If this is not specified in the surge protector instructions, call the manufacturer and ask what size breaker.

That new double breaker can be located anywhere in the panel.

Then connect one black wire to each connection on the double breaker, white to the neutral bar, and green to the ground bar.

If you do not fully understand how your electric panel works, what the two hots are above, how those connect to various breakers, why it is always live, and why you can't connect two wires to one breaker, call an electrician!

[Doc]

There's a main breaker outside the house. I could install one of these little square box protector units on that but if I put one on the inside panel in the garage I'll be walking by it all the time and can more readily observe the status lights.

You feel it should be a double breaker instead of two singles?

[Bill]

Just be sure to turn off the main power before doing any work! OK to install it on the inside subpanel.

Then double breakers are usually used for a 240 volt appliance. They have what is called an "internal common trip". Those would be for things like a range, electric hot water heater, etc. And in that case, if one "hot" was overloaded, you would want both to trip as is what happens.

But I would not think that would matter with this surge protector. It would be important for safety to have a tie-bar between the two breakers though (handle connecting both breakers). That would be to service it. You would have to turn off both breakers. So safer.

I would just get a double breaker, as a retail store might not sell the tie bar part. An "electricians supply" would.

[John Grabowski]

*Install a 20 amp two pole breaker in the available spaces. White neutral wire goes on the left side, the green ground wire goes on the right side.

Make sure that your grounding electrode conductor connections at the water pipe and ground rods are clean and tight.

[Doc]

I see the install instructions actually specify that independent single pole breakers are preferred.

[trader4]

Which is very strange indeed. I don't see any reason for that and don't know of any other surge protector manufacturer with that recomendation. I'd also note that with a 4,000 amp rating, this isn't what I would use when for the same or less money you can get one that is rated at 20,000 or 40,000 amps. I guess since it has protection for phone and cable also, that's worth something, but seperate protectors for phone and cable are available for $10.

[gregz]

Looks something like the original box in my old house. NO main shut off. Oh no.

Greg

[bud--]

The instructions recommend 30A breakers.

I have a slight preference for a postion near the feed - top in your panel. But you want to minimize the length of wire from the protector to the hot, neutral and ground connections. (And you don't want sharp bends in the wires.) In your panel my preference would be to connect the protector to the panel on the right toward the bottom of the busbars. The neutral connection goes to the bar on the left side under the busbars. Minimum length to the ground bar. I would put the breaker(s) for the surge protector in the bottom right position (moving the breaker that is there now).

The neutral is connected to "ground" at a service panel. That connection may be at this panel, or probably at the service disconnect.

I would prefer to install the surge protection where the earthing electrodes connect to the system. The earthing electrodes appear to connect to the ground bus in the picture.

Yes.

Nice picture and links. It helps a lot.

[bud--]

I don't know either.

It actually has a rating of 48,000 per hot wire. But it also says "Nominal Discharge Current Rating: 3kA". I have no idea what that is.

I missed the phone & cable protection. But there are 2 different protectors. 5110-1 does not have phone & cable protection. 5110-SRG does. Looks like he has SRG and copied a sheet that came with it.

[Doc]

Apparently the online version of the instructions indicate 30A as was pointed out in another forum, the instructions in the box definitely say 20A.

[vwduff]

An electrician just installed the Leviton 51110 in my panel. He just conne cted the 4 wires inside the panel and left the unit inside the panel. Of c ourse, you cannot see the two lights without removing the panel cover. The instructions don't say the 51110 has to be visible, but it does say that i f one or both lights go out the unit must be replaced.

My question is: Is this a good installation with the 51110 inside the pane l, not visible, or should the electrician installed in outside the panel so the lights are visible?

If it's ok inside the panel, how do you know when the unit needs replacing?

Thanks for your help.

[Bob_Villa]

Whole house surge protection is pointless and costly...protect the individual items that need it at each point of use. .02

[bud--]

I am surprised the protector fits inside the service panel.

Leviton's instructions say to "mount the SPD unit securely". It isn't mounted securely. And isn't mounted in any of the suggested ways. IMHO it is a schlocky installation. If an inspector looked at it I don't think they would be pleased. IMHO code violations are not following the manufacturer's instructions and not installing in a "workmanlike manner". The wires may be longer than necessary - an important point and covered in Leviton's instructions.

If this is a service panel the neutral and ground are connected together and a 3-wire protector could have been used. The 4th wire doesn't hurt anything, but doesn't do anything useful.

============================= I agree with trader's answer to BobV.

[RobertMacy]

Or, drill tiny holes, add plastic tubing as light pipes, and bring the indications to the surface?

Or, not allowed to drill holes in the panel's cover?