Farm Irrigation Electrical Pump Panels Surge Protection

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RBro42

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North Louisiana
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Agriculture Electrical Service company owner
I am beginning to do Integration Water Well electrification for local farmers and well drilling companies. One of the major issues with Irrigation we have is Surges caused by nearby Lightning Strikes. Although we cannot stop the strikes, we can offer some surge protection, such as External Surge Protectors. My question is, for an application in this environment which provides the best combined protection, 1)-Delayed blow Fuses, vs 2)- 65kaic Circuit breakers?
 
Lightning surges are too fast to blow fuses or trip breakers . You will need a Listed SPD, see the code article on surge suppression. Put a SPD at the service and one on the control panel.
 
I sort of agree with Tom on this one. No fuse or circuit breaker will do you much good with surges.

Whether the surge protector will help or not is something else.

The thing is that over time, components and systems have gotten more resistant to surges as the designs and components have improved. So, while you may experience fewer failures on new equipment that has SPDs installed, it may have nothing to do with the SPD.

Another issue with SPDs is that the level at which they turn on and start protecting is a lot higher than you might think, especially with SPDs intended for use at the main. If the incoming surge voltage is not high enough to trigger the SPD to turn on, it does nothing.
 
Thanks, Guy's, for several opinions. My intention was and is to install a surge protection devise. I was just thinking I may improve the protection using Fused Pump Panels In lieu of Circuit Breakers. Appears from your comments that there would not be any difference either way.
However, all customers prefer the Circuit Breaker before Fuses because they can reset prior to calling me to fix.
Thanks.
 
RBro42 said:
Thanks, Guy's, for several opinions. My intention was and is to install a surge protection devise. I was just thinking I may improve the protection using Fused Pump Panels In lieu of Circuit Breakers. Appears from your comments that there would not be any difference either way.
However, all customers prefer the Circuit Breaker before Fuses because they can reset prior to calling me to fix.
Thanks.
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They should call you immediately upon a trip, before resetting.

I would be more concerned with current balance and phase loss protection on the overload block than surge protection.

We use fuses.

Depending on your POCO billing, power factor correction can save your customer $$.
 
ptonsparky said:
They should call you immediately upon a trip, before resetting.

I would be more concerned with current balance and phase loss protection on the overload block than surge protection.

We use fuses.

Depending on your POCO billing, power factor correction can save your customer $$.
Click to expand...
Same here. One reason is that is what supply houses give best prices on and basically only type they stock. I buy pump panels for places others would maybe use a combination starter on simply because my supply house sells them much less than a combination starter for same size motor.
 
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