Whole House Surge Protectors

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doolz

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#95914 16-Jan-2012 21:03

Anyone seen these in NZ? I have had a google around and can't find any.

Are they a good idea? Do they work? Recommended brands?
All that good stuff

Thanks

Doolz
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sbiddle

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#569659 16-Jan-2012 21:17

doolz: Anyone seen these in NZ? I have had a google around and can't find any.

Are they a good idea? Do they work? Recommended brands?
All that good stuff

Thanks

There are plenty around that can be wired into your mains board, just check out any electrical wholesaler. As for brands, virtually every major electrical brand (like of PDL, Clipsal etc) all have a range od products.

There are plenty of countries (including some parts of Australia with high thunderstorm risks) where they are mandatory.

mattwnz

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#569660 16-Jan-2012 21:20

doolz: Anyone seen these in NZ?? I have had a google around and can't find any.

Are they a good idea?? Do they work???Recommended?brands?
All that?good stuff

Thanks ???

Electrical shops have them that go into the fuse box. Quite Commons now, but not sure how good they really are.

gregmcc

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#569677 16-Jan-2012 22:06

the better ones come with an indicator showing the status of the surge protection, some have replacement plug in surge modules.

Yoban

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#569773 17-Jan-2012 09:19

Hi there, yep had one of these installed about 2-3 years ago at a total cost of about $300. The bulk of that was for the device itself and the sparky plugged it in to the distribution box at the front so that all power went through it before hitting the circuits of the house. This is what I got http://www.pdl.co.nz/product-details.aspx?rcat=products&catid=1286&id=2138 although I have a small window that shows the status of the device which is rated to take a direct lightning strike.

The only catch is that TV aerial and phone is not protected.

Yoban

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#569774 17-Jan-2012 09:25

gregmcc: the better ones come with an indicator showing the status of the surge protection, some have replacement plug in surge modules.

This is the downside of mine - if it does its job from a big hit then I need to replace the whole unit. The indicator on it is good to show its status from brown outs and "dirty" electricity.

Unlike the hpm version http://www.hpm.co.nz/Products.aspx?pid=341#Circuit-Protection-and-Enclosures/Circuit-Protection-and-Enclosures/Surge-Diverters that looks like a modula solution.

richms

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#569830 17-Jan-2012 11:29

Yeah, got one, just slots into the board like a breaker and goes between phase and neutral or earth (cant recall). No need for one from neutral to earth there as that is where the earth and neutrral are tied together.

Removing all the crap powerstrip ones from around the place went a long way to solving the random noises coming thru the stereo when loads switched on and off etc. However there are still capacitors in power supplies that dump noise onto the earth as a way to comply with BS EMC laws that don't seem to care about ground polution just radiated noise.

Anyway, no idea of how well it works since it hasnt blown up, no appliannces have blown up so it either works really well, or its sitting there doing nothing since there have been no surges for it to protect from. For the price (no way near the multiple 100's) it seemed like a no brainer since the board was getting replaced with a bigger one anyway to fit more annoying RCD's the space taken up is a non issue.

Richard rich.ms

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doolz

35 posts

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#569883 17-Jan-2012 13:22

Thanks guys, that's great to know.
I had never bothered with power protection before now (I just have a 7yr old media centre PC and my 6 yr old laptop which I'm not to worried about), and I've never really had a problem where I live. But the day before I went on a two week holiday, a power glitch (dunno if it was a surge or just a quick outage) broke my computer. I thought it killed my hdd but after I tested it thru USB in my laptop it seemed fine and what dfo you know, the Windows 7 system repair actually worked ;)

Anyway, it got me thinking I should probably get some sort of protection, as my equipment list keeps growing, and I'd need three of four reasonable surge protectors whichwould probably cost much the same as a whole house one. Might get it installed when I run the power to the garage ;)

Thanks guys

Doolz
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Skolink

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#572299 23-Jan-2012 11:37

Interesting thread. Just got asked about this on the weekend when visiting a friend who works in the insurance industry. They were wondering why everyone didn't have one, if they were about the same cost as your insurance excess.

I guess most people would rather just put off that expense given the low likelihood of a surge, and maybe wouldn't mind paying the excess for a whole new set of appliances.