Lighting Arrestor

7/30/2019 Lighting Arrestor

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Lighting andVoltage Surge

Rod arrester

Lightning cancreate voltage
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surges inseveral of the

followingways.

Lightning canscore a direct

hit on yourhouse. It can


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strike theoverhead

power linewhich enters

your house, ora main power

line that isblocks away


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from yourhome.

Lightning canstrike branch

circuitry wiringin the walls of

your house.


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Lightning canstrike an object

near yourhome such as a

tree or theground itself

and cause asurge. Voltage
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surges can becreated by

cloud to cloudlightning near

your home. Ahighly charged

cloud whichpasses over
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your home canalso induce a

voltage surge.Voltage surges

can also becaused bystandard on

and off


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switchingactivities of

large electricmotors or

pieces ofequipment.

These surgescan be created


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by a neighbor,or by a

business ormanufacturing

facility somedistance from

your house.These surges


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are insidiousand for the

most part aresilent.

They can occurwith little or nowarning.


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Methodologyto Suppress

Lighting andVoltage

Surge:When avoltage surge

is created, it


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wants toequalize itself

and it wants todo it as quickly

as possible.These things

seem to havevery little


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patience. Thesurges will do

whatever ittakes to

equalize orneutralize

themselves,even if it


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means shortcircuiting all of

your electronicequipment.

The method ofprovidingmaximum

protection for
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equipment isquite simple.

Create apathway for

the voltagesurge

(electricity) toget to and into


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the groundoutside your

house asquickly as

possible.This is not, inmost cases, a

difficult task.


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Thefirst step issimple. Create

an excellentgrounding

system foryour household

electricalsystem. The


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vast majorityof homes do

not have anexcellent

groundingsystem. Many

homes have asingle


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grounding rodand /or a

metallicunderground

water pipewhich are part

of the electricalgrounding


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system. Inmost cases, this

is inadequate.The reason is

somewhat easyto explain.

Imagineputting a two


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inch fire hoseinto your

kitchen sinkand opening

the nozzle tothe full on

position. Idoubt that the


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drain in yoursink could

handle all ofthe water. Your

groundingsystem would

react in thesame way to a


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massivevoltage surge.

Just as thewater jumps

out of the sink,the electricity

jumps from thegrounding


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system andlooks for

places to go.Frequently it

looks for themicrochips in

your electronicdevices. They


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are an easytarget. They

offer a path ofleast

resistance.Voltage surgeswant to be

directed to the


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groundingsystem, and

when they do,they want to

get into theground around

your house in ahurry. You can
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achieve this bydriving

numerousgrounding rods

into virgin soilaround your

house. Theserods should be


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UL approvedand connected

by acontinuous

heavy solidcopper wire

which iswelded to each


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grounding rod.This solid

copper wirebegins on the

grounding barinside of your

electrical paneland terminates


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at the lastgrounding rod.

Avoid usingclamps if at all

possible. Overtime, the

connection atthe clamp can


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corrode orbecome loose

creatingtremendous

resistance. Thiswill act as a

roadblock tothe electricity


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trying to getinto the ground

around yourhome.

The groundingrods should beat least ten feet

apart from one


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another. Theyshould be

located in soilwhich readily

acceptselectricity.

Moist claysoils are very


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desirable.Rocky, sandy,

or soils withgravel

generally havehigh resistance

factors.Electricity has


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a tough timedissipating into

them.Resistance

readingsshould be in

the range of 10to 30 ohms.


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The lower thebetter.

Thesecondstep in

householdsurgeprotection is to

install a


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lightningarrester inside

of your electricservice panel.

These devicescan be

extremelyeffective in


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interceptinglarge voltage

surges whichtravel in the

electric powerlines. These

devices capturethe voltage


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surges andbleed them

off to thegrounding wire

which we justspoke of. If for

some reasonyou do not


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have a largeenough

groundingwire, or

enough groundrods, the

arrester cannotdo its job. It


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must be able tosend the surge

quickly to theground outside

of your house.These arresters

range in pricefrom $50.00 to


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$175.00.Almost every

manufacturerof circuit

breakers makesone to fit inside

their panel.They can be


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installed by ahomeowner

who isexperienced in

dealing withhigh voltage

panels. If youdo not have


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this capability,have an

experiencedelectrician

install it foryou.

Thefinal step

in the


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protection planis to install

point of usesurge

suppressiondevices. Often

you will seethese called


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transientvoltage surge

suppressors.These are your

last line ofdefense. They

are capable ofonly stopping


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the leftovervoltage surge

which got pastthe grounding

system and thelightning

arrester. Theycannot protect


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your electronicdevices by

themselves.They must be

used inconjunction

with thegrounding


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system and thelightning

arresters. Donot be lulled

into a falsesense of

security if youmerely use one


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of thesedevices!

The point ofuse surge

suppressiondevices areavailable in

various levels


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of quality.Some are much

better thanothers. What

sets them apartare several

things.Generally


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speaking, youlook to see

how fast theirresponse time

is. This is oftenreferred to as

clampingspeed. Also,


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look to seehow high of a

voltage surgethey will

suppress. Makesure that the

device has a500 volt


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maximum ULrated

suppressionlevel. Check to

see if it has anindicator,

either visual oraudio, which


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lets you knowif it is not

working. Thebetter units

offer both, incase you install

the device outof sight. Check


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to see if itoffers a variety

of modes withrespect to

protection. Forexample, does

the deviceoffer protection


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for surgeswhich occur

between thehot and

neutral,between hot

and ground, aswell as


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betweenneutral and

ground. Thereis a difference!

Check to see ifit monitors the

normal sinewaves of


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regularhousehold

current. Surgescan cause

irregularities inthese wave

patterns. Goodtransient surge


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suppressiondevices

devour thesevoltage spikes.

Finally, checkthe joule

rating. Attemptto locate a


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device whichhas a joule

rating of 140 orhigher.

Electricalsupply houses

often are thebest place to


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look for thesehigh quality

devices.Some devices

can alsoprotect yourphone

equipment at


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the same time.This is very

important forthose

individualswho have

computermodems.


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Massivevoltage surges

can comeacross phone

lines as well.These surges

can enter yourcomputer


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through thetelephone line!

Dont forget toprotect this line

as well. Also,be sure the

telephoneground wire is


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tied to theupgraded

electricalgrounding

system.

Lighting Arrestor

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