Re: Power Conditioners?
- From: westom1@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 10:21:45 -0800 (PST)
On Feb 2, 10:36 am, Bob Lombard <thorsteinnos...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
west...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
The principles that Franklin demonstrated resulted in the lightning rod.
Does a lightning rod, brought to earth at the house common earth ground,
provide protection for electronic devices in the house?
Franklin observed that lightning connects to earth via something
conductive – ie wooden church steeples. Surges are electric current
that connects to earth. Lightning builds and then discharges on a
path from cloud to earth. Damaged items are in that path. Damages
items must have an incoming and outgoing electrical path from cloud to
earth.
Church steeples are conductive, but not conductive enough.
Therefore electric current passing through that steeple created
damage. Franklin simply gave lightning a more conductive path to
earth via a rod - the air terminal. Lightning rods get all the credit
because that is what we see. But earthing makes that lightning rod
effective. We often do not credit what we don’t see. Since a
lightning rod connection to earth is so conductive, then lightning
gets diverted harmlessly to earth.
Lightning also finds earth ground destructively through household
appliances. A direct lightning strike to AC wires down the street is
a direct lightning strike to earth via household appliances. A 'whole
house' protector does what Ben Franklin's air terminals did. A 'whole
house' protector diverts a direct lightning strike to ground. An
earthed surge does not enter a building to find ground destructively
via appliances.
Many assume a surge would destroy all appliances. No. A surge will
damage appliances that make a better connection to earth. Why is a
VCR damaged but not the adjacent TV? That VCR was the better
connection to earth. That VCR acted as a surge protector for the TV.
But effective protectors do not fail. So we install one 'whole house'
protector AND upgrade earthing to meet and exceed the post 1990
National Electrical Code.
What makes a Franklin air terminal more effective? Many foolishly
discuss blunt verses sharp. What is not observed is most important -
earth ground.
To make surge protection more effective, high reliability facilities
spend massively on their earthing. One example is Ufer grounds.
Conductive steel inside concrete is a superior ground because concrete
is so conductive. Conductive? Yes. Like the church steeple. Many
items considered non-conductive by laymen are actually very conductive
to surges. See examples in:
http://scott-inc.com/html/ufer.htm
http://www.psihq.com/iread/ufergrnd.htm
One FL homeowner had repeated strikes to a wall. So they had
lightning rods installed. Lightning again struck that wall. Why?
Inside the wall were bathroom pipes that connected to deeper
limestone. Those lightning rods were only earthed by 8 foot rods in
sand. Lightning simply obtained the better connection to earth. What
determines the effectiveness of a protector? Same thing – better
earthing. Even a 'whole house' protector is only as effective as its
earth ground. Rather than waste money on a plug-in protector, spend
that money to upgrade earthing to both meet and exceed 1990 code
requirements.
Critical is to have all protectors connected 'less than 10 feet' to
a “single point” earth ground. That means a coax (TV) cable connects
directly to earth - no protector required. Telephone 'whole house'
protector (installed free by the telco on all homes) and the AC
electric 'whole house' protector also must make a 'less than 10 foot'
connection to that same earthing.
A protector is not protection. A protector is simply a connecting
device. It diverts (connects, shunts, clamps, conducts) surges into
protection – as both NIST and IEEE both demonstrated. Protection is
earth ground. Earth ground is where surge energy must be harmlessly
dissipated.
What Franklin demonstrated in 1752 is also installed in every
telephone switching center (CO) everywhere in the world: short
connections to better earthing. That protection has been routine for
100 years. A protector without earthing cannot and does not claim to
provide protection. More responsible companies market a 'whole house'
protector with the dedicated wire to connect to “single point” earth
ground.
One utility demonstrates how “single point” earthing must be
installed AND how to fix earthing that is not single point:
http://www.cinergy.com/surge/ttip08.htm
Earthing provides the protection. Effective protectors have a short
connection to earth AND remain functional after surges.
An industry benchmark for surge protection is Polyphaser. See their
application notes at:
http://www.polyphaser.com/ppc_technical.asp
Polyphaser’s app notes discuss earthing extensively. To make a
protector more effective, Polyphaser makes a protector without a
connection to earth. Instead, that protector mounts ON earth ground.
Protection is about the quality of and connection to earth ground –
which is what Franklin demonstrated in 1752. Where does that massive
surge energy get harmlessly dissipated? A protector is only as
effective as its earth ground.
.
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