[RFI] Recommendation needed: Whole house surge protection

Mon Apr 30 15:38:19 EDT 2018

When the car hit the pole last Wed night, one of the upper HV lines fell across one of the lower lower voltage lines. This caused a surge on one leg feeding hundreds of houses in the neighborhood. several fire companies made the rounds through the homes in the area going door to door checking for smoke / fire. I heard of four houses did have fire issues that were quickly addressed.

It wasn't just one surge either, it happened a couple times, I guess the wires were swaying and contacting each other. 

I also have  a habit of unplugging most everything when not in use. The problem was this surge occurred around 9pm when most people were home watching TV and on the computer or radios. Lucky for me I had work to do so I didn't have the radios on and the power switch feeding the outlet for them was off (I was going to be very upset if my TS-990 took a hit....).

Several of the breakers in the house tripped. Most of the ones that did were on the feed that surged.

The computer surge protector fried along with the others throughout  the house that were on the affected leg. 

A catastrophic event like this would be difficult to protect against given the duration of the surge(s) but I figure installing a whole hose protector (a good one) is another level of protection on top of the lightning protection I have for the antennas and feed lines.

I've lived at this location for over 25 years and this was the first time we have an event like this - hopefully the last.

I spoke with one of the utility guys that was out doing repairs and he told me that over his career he's seen about 50 house fires caused by "cheap" plastic enclosed surge protectors.

I'm very familiar with the failure mode of varistors having used them in different products we have designed over the years. One of the things we always did was to either wrap them in Kapton tape or cover them in heatshrink tubing to minimize the shrapnel when they let loose. I took apart two of our surge protectors. One was in my daughters room a cheap one (I didn't know it was there - came home from college with her....). The varistor in that was obliterated and definitely hot enough to cause a fire. This was the first one we smelled that night and immediately threw it outside. The second one was on my computer and had a couple banks of varistors wrapped with Kapton tape. While this one didn't survive there was no shrapnel inside as the tape held the varistors intact.

One other lesson I gave my kids that night was an easy one - the smell of an electrical fire. Made them smell the surge protectors up close and told them that was a smell that is hard to forget. If they ever smell something like that in their own homes start checking the electronics.

Sorry for the rambling.......

Tom
W3TA

-----Original Message-----
From: David Harmon <k6xyz at sbcglobal.net>
To: rfi <rfi at contesting.com>
Sent: Mon, Apr 30, 2018 1:36 pm
Subject: Re: [RFI] Recommendation needed: Whole house surge protection

A friend of mine home burned down and a lot of other homes were severely
damaged exactly this way.
A drunk hit a pole and the HV fell across the LV lines.
The power company refused to accept responsibility.
Part of my friends problem was that the receptacle(s) in his garage had some
tools left plugged in and the HV lit up the line cords for the tools.
I remember seeing him and his wife on the local TV news standing on the
sidewalk in their underwear watching the fire dept trying to put out the
fire.
They would not get near it until the power was shut off....so they just
watched along with the neighbors.
I learned looong ago when another fire just like this started at work for
the same reason.
After that....no line cords were allowed to be left plugged in.
I got into the habit so now I live where there is a lot of lightening and I
unplug the radio gear and everything with a microprocessor in it.
Especially when lightening is within 50 miles.
Recently I got a new dishwasher and clothes washer.
I unplug them when they are not in use....
The TV's and associated equipment and satellite antenna even though they are
plugged into surge protectors get unplugged too.
The house meter on the pole has a surge protector too.
Paranoid??
No....but why take a chance?

73

David Harmon
K6XYZ
Sperry, OK

-----Original Message-----
From: RFI [mailto:rfi-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Thomas Hoyer
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2018 7:12 AM
To: ericrosenberg.dc at gmail.com; pvrc at mailman.qth.net
Cc: rfi at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RFI] Recommendation needed: Whole house surge protection

Timely question as last week there was an accident near me that caused a
high voltage line to fall across the low voltage lines. 

Spent the next few days replacing fuses and varistors in several appliances
and throwing out four line cord type surge protectors that got fried. Lucky
for me none of my radios or computers were damaged.

Been doing the research into a whole house unit myself and I'd be interested
in hearing others opinions / experiences.

Tom
W3TA

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Rosenberg <ericrosenberg.dc at gmail.com>
To: pvrc <pvrc at mailman.qth.net>
Cc: rfi <rfi at contesting.com>
Sent: Sun, Apr 29, 2018 11:45 pm
Subject: [RFI] Recommendation needed: Whole house surge protection

I'm interested in having a whole house surge (AC) protector installed.

How does one size it, and can anyone recommended a manufacturer (and
particular model)? 

Thanks & 73,

Eric W3DQ

Washington, DC 

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