What are peoples thoughts on surge breakers installed in the main panel? I only see them on rare occasions. Should these be installed on all new construction?
Good design decision, it doesn't necessarily need to be one that plugs onto bus of the panel either.
As mentioned 2020 NEC is adding requirements - IMO should still be a design decision and not a requirement.
Residential Services will be required to have them in the 2020 code cycle. All the AFCI & GFCI requirements now need protection of those items.
AFCIs & GFCIs should have their own internal protection. This is just another scam to sell products.
If this keeps up, with AFCIs and GFCIs for everything, firefighter discos, surge protection and whatever else manufacturers can convince the NEC we need, the service will become a major part of the cost of new construction.
-Hal
I also find it funny that the biggest critics of these new expensive items are the guys who should be making MORE money because of it. For example if you look at your markup when you install a $45 breaker instead of a $5 one you just made 9X the markup. Sounds like money for nothing.
Riiiiiight, and Obamacare was supposed to save us money and let us keep our present insurance. :roll:We all know AFCI protection was only supposed to add like $150 to a new house.