Surge Protection

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kentriolinda

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I am beginning to wire a 3000 sq ft house. All new construction , I am installing a 400 amp main panel in addition to that I am installing two sub panels one 200 amp and the other is a 100 amp.
The client would like surge protection installed on certain branch cir. Is there any way to surge protect the entire sub panel and pull all branch cir. that I would like to protect from only that sub.
Any suggestions ?
 
kentriolinda said:
I am beginning to wire a 3000 sq ft house. All new construction , I am installing a 400 amp main panel in addition to that I am installing two sub panels one 200 amp and the other is a 100 amp.
The client would like surge protection installed on certain branch cir. Is there any way to surge protect the entire sub panel and pull all branch cir. that I would like to protect from only that sub.
Any suggestions ?
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As long as there are not other reasons (load balancing, etc.) preventing you from putting all of those circuits in a 100A panel, I don't think so.

Depending on the length of wire between the main and each of the sub panels, a whole panel surge protector (set) in one panel will provide some very low level of surge protection to the other panel too. Limited by the impedance and time delay of the connecting wires.
For really sensitive equipment it is not a bad idea to put individual surge protection on each branch or via a power strip right at the loads. The load-end surge protectors can supplement the whole panel protectors and reduce the residual surge level that hits the equipment. Especially in the case of potentials induced directly into the branch wiring from a near strike by lightning. That is more likely to happen if the branch wiring is NM rather than in a metal raceway.
 
GoldDigger said:
As long as there are not other reasons (load balancing, etc.) preventing you from putting all of those circuits in a 100A panel, I don't think so.

Depending on the length of wire between the main and each of the sub panels, a whole panel surge protector (set) in one panel will provide some very low level of surge protection to the other panel too. Limited by the impedance and time delay of the connecting wires.
For really sensitive equipment it is not a bad idea to put individual surge protection on each branch or via a power strip right at the loads. The load-end surge protectors can supplement the whole panel protectors and reduce the residual surge level that hits the equipment. Especially in the case of potentials induced directly into the branch wiring from a near strike by lightning. That is more likely to happen if the branch wiring is NM rather than in a metal raceway.
Click to expand...

Thank you that is information I had not found yet! again Thankyou very much!
 
kentriolinda said:
Thank you that is information I had not found yet! again Thankyou very much!
Click to expand...

You are welcome. If your customer does not like the idea of power strip surge protectors, you can also get receptacles with built-in surge protection. Again, these are limited in the amount of energy they can divert, and so are best combined with additional protection at the panel.
Unlike receptacle GFCIs, I would not count on this kind of receptacle for feed through protection of additional receptacles on the same circuit, although there will be some benefit in that respect too.
 
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