slick 50
Senior Member
- Location
- 6 super bowl ring city
Hi,
The other day I was on a jobsite that had a whole house surge mounted in a 1/2" KO at the main loadcenter. It has 4 conductors, 2 ungrounded, 1 grounded and one EGC. Here is what gets me, the 2 hots which were 14 gauge wire were connected to a 50A 2 pole breaker. I immediately thought that was wrong and should be a 15A breaker becasue of the wire gauge. My boss says that it is fine and needs to be a 50A so the surge current can reach its maximum without tripping the breaker. He said if it was on a 15A breaker, the surge could trip the breaker and not allow the SPD to absorb it. He also said that you dont even need overcurrent protection and it can be tapped off the bus or main since it is not considered a branch circuit and it does not draw any current on a normal basis. I checked in the NEC and I do see where it says a SPD can be installed anywhere after the main. Anyone have any insight? I wanted to change to a 15A breaker:?
The other day I was on a jobsite that had a whole house surge mounted in a 1/2" KO at the main loadcenter. It has 4 conductors, 2 ungrounded, 1 grounded and one EGC. Here is what gets me, the 2 hots which were 14 gauge wire were connected to a 50A 2 pole breaker. I immediately thought that was wrong and should be a 15A breaker becasue of the wire gauge. My boss says that it is fine and needs to be a 50A so the surge current can reach its maximum without tripping the breaker. He said if it was on a 15A breaker, the surge could trip the breaker and not allow the SPD to absorb it. He also said that you dont even need overcurrent protection and it can be tapped off the bus or main since it is not considered a branch circuit and it does not draw any current on a normal basis. I checked in the NEC and I do see where it says a SPD can be installed anywhere after the main. Anyone have any insight? I wanted to change to a 15A breaker:?
