Surger protector placement

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Bmxer883

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Industrial electrician
So I'm wondering what's a good size surge protector for whole home? Also best place to put it.

House has a 200 amp auto transfer switch with built in breaker so that's first means of disconnect. Then from there goes in side house to a junction box that is tapped and feeds 100 amp sub panel for house at that same tap it goes to a garage and has a 200 amp sub panel.

Also out of 100 amp sub in house feeds a 50amp sub in a barn so I'm wondering where to put a protector I want everything protected is there something that can go at transfer switch right at main lug connection or do I buy the breaker type surge protector for every panel witch would be more money.

Any suggestions?
 
Bmxer883 said:
Just want to do what's best
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Put one in every panel. POCO here will sell you one for the meter can as well. You can't hardly have too many.

P.S. If it's my house (or your house), that's my opinion. It's still my opinion if it's for a customer, but now you have to sell it.
 
Bmxer883 said:
Just want to do what's best
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there is no way to know what is "best" in this circumstance. be upfront with your customer about it and let him decide how much money he wants to spend on the issue. it is kind of like buying an extended warranty on something. it might make you feel better but it may also never recoup what you spend on it.
 
Code is there for safety, however surge from the NEC's perspect for safety is really about giving the smart breakers and ones with electronics modern AFCI/GFCI breakers a fighting chance. It's better to have a convo with the customer. In data centers surge is thought of as a layered defense. There is no one magic bullet for surge. Personally I mirrored this approach, put a Seimens FS140 outside at the meter/disco. A type II in the panel, and for my data storage and research computer / av equipment I have APC's. Enabling each to peel off some of the surge. The exterior one is at mounted so that it will self immolate onto some garden rocks if the worst happens. Which makes replacement easy and far less messy.
 
Okay thanks the house has been hit or near lightning but didn't see any damage besides two tripped breakers in barn and burnt up a amplifier for speakers that was in the garage. So this is reason for installing surge protectors.
 
Bmxer883 said:
Okay thanks the house has been hit or near lightning but didn't see any damage besides two tripped breakers in barn and burnt up a amplifier for speakers that was in the garage. So this is reason for installing surge protectors.
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Realize that nothing will help you with a direct strike. Nothing! Except mitigation systems that draw the strike away around you. Just because you didn't see damage doesn't mean that circuits didn't take a hit and potentially arc some contacts or traces on a PCB. Our ESD training shows pictures of microscopic damage that maybe you'll never see, or maybe it will break the equipment in mysterious ways down the line when you least expect it. Given i work with military hardware we don't risk it TL;DR; esp if you're installing it yourself, I consider $400-600 for layered surge suppressors the cheapest insurance policy you can buy that doesn't incur a monthly fee.

Where is the equipment you wish to protect the house or the barn? You can of course put one at both. But depends on what you're trying to protect and where. Ideal case one outside, one inside each in the panel. However, now that starts to get costly and so now you're making the call as to which location is worth more to protect. Because both locations have a ground rod, a surge could originate at both locations into your system. It sounds like the garage is also separate, man that's a tough call. If you don't have anything but some tools in the garage who cares, but if you have 60K in a tesla... an extra few hundred on surge starts to look more cost effective.
 
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