[olug] One Point Twenty-One Jigawatts

Tue May 13 23:11:54 UTC 2003

If people want to, it is possible to do the same thing OPPD does on your
home service panel.  The device is called a whole house surge protector.
Some examples can be found at: http://www.smarthome.com/surge.html or
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/newhome/article/0,16219,387874-3,00.html

I know Leviton, Intermatic, Square D, Siemens, GE and Cutler Hammer make
these types of products.  They are much larger than the smaller ones you
plug into the walls.  They protect Line to Line, Line to Neutral, and
Line-Ground at the 220V service panel to your house.  They typically protect
to 1,200 to 5,000 joules and clamp in nanoseconds.  Some have hookups for
phone and cable also.  They are designed to take a strike of 50 to 60
thousand amps which the little plug protectors are not made for.  

Drawbacks are they cost 100-200 dollars and need to be installed at the
electrical service panel which is not for the faint hearted to attempt.
Actually higher a professional if you have not worked inside the service
panel before.  It is safer to spend money than to be dead.

So if you compare the whole house products to OPPD, they are selling you
these bigger units over time in the rental fee they charge each month.  The
difference is OPPD is installed at the meter and yours are installed after
the main breaker.  The result is basically the same.  Stop the surge at the
point of entry and limit the down line effects.

If you are going to get hit with a near by lightening strike the computers
are not the only things that are going to get whacked.  Think of your
microwave, stove, refrigerator and anything else that has circuits in it.  I
remember UNO blew up 150 VT100s and 1/2 of an 11/780 VAX when the CBA
building took a hit.  All because the building itself was not properly
grounded and the coax wires between CBA and Eppley were the best ground
available.  Sad thing was they did it twice in the same year.  PK was the
cause of the second strike when a contractor crossed a 4,800v main to a 330v
three phase feeder to the CBA and did it all over again.

Just my to cents worth,
John

>>> relayer at omahadirect.net 5/13/2003 >>>
Maybe this could be a OLUG meeting subject?  I don't mind discussing it
at 
the next meeting...(did I just volunteer?)

One thing to remember about Surge Supression is that the supressor you

buy is only as good as the power runs in your house.  A prerequisite 
for a Surge Supresser is a properly gounded three-prong outlet.  For
about 
$5 to $7 bucks, you can pick up an outlet tester at Menards.  This is a

standard item in my toolkit.  Very useful for Lan Parties.

Plug it into the outlet you plan to put your UPS/Supressor on - there
is 
usually three lights on the end, with instructions on how to read the 
lights printed on the side.  If the outlet tests anything beyond
normal,  
don't use it, you may be sorry (most likely No Ground, or Hot
Neutral).
Also, Two-prong outlets are not considered safe.  These are
non-grounded  
plugs, don't trust an adapter.  Also, if you have a house with a mix of

two-prong and three-prong, chances are the three-prong outlets were 
installed to avoid the use of a three-prong to two-prong adapter.  Best

bet, always test your outlets.

Putting Surge Supression on an AC power line is only part of the
picture.  
Telephone, Cat-5, and RG-6 (coax cable) all need protection, as any one
of 
them plugs directly into your PC.  These are often overlooked items.
The 
APC BackUPS Office has Phone/Cat5 protection.  Having Surge Supression
on 
your cable/satellite coax lines is essential if you have a Home theatre

system, which often has more investment values than some PC setups.

I do not remember if the Whole-House surge supression covers Telephone,

CAT5, Coax runs.  Spending a little money in these areas will save you

later.  Does anyone have whole-house suppression from OPPD?  What fee
do 
you pay per month for the service?  Installation?

A good habit to get into is to check your surge supressors after each 
electrical storm.  You never know if any of them have been hit.  Check
the 
LED status.  A medium to high-end supressors, you will usually have a 
"Protection" status LED - if this is not on, replace the supressor, as
it 
has done it's duty.  

Surge Supressors with higher Joules ratings are always better.

Underground wiring will help with some surge situations.  I moved last

December to a subdivision that has underground wiring - 
we lost power around 4 AM on Sunday May 4th.  I saw 
the light from a few OPPD trucks inspecting the above-ground lines in
my 
area (120th and Military) - power was back on about 30 minutes later.
I know it was May 4th because I had to re-program my VCR to record the

F1 race at 6:30 AM.

I have several APC UPS units at home.  My main unit, APC SmartUPS 900,
is 
a bit older, but still works great.  I followed the directions from the
NUT 
site to build my own APC cable using a couple DB-9 plugs and a Cat-5 
cable.  Using PowerChute, I can have my PC shut down automatically
after a 
given amount of time.  I have a small APC BackUPS 300 for my cable
modem 
and router.  The smaller current draw allows the 300 to stay up longer.

NUT is the Network UPS Tools.  I believe you can have one host monitor
the 
UPS through the signal cable, and notify other hosts on the same UPS to

shut down.  Very handy for multi-host environments on one UPS.

Check it out:
http://www.exploits.org/nut/ 

If you want the extreme in surge supression, check out PolyPhaser
corp.
http://www.polyphaser.com 

Check out their Engineering Notes area (LAN, Phone, equipment rack, 
roof-top grounding):
http://www.polyphaser.com/ppc_pen_home.asp 

Jon L.

On Tue, 13 May 2003, Joe Catanzaro wrote:

> Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 09:39:13 -0500
> From: Joe Catanzaro <joecatanzaro at cox.net>
> Reply-To: Omaha Linux User Group <olug at olug.org>
> To: olug at olug.org 
> Subject: [olug] One Point Twenty-One Jigawatts
> 
> I didn't grow up in a place that has lots of lightning like the
Mid-west, 
> so I have several questions regarding best practices for lightning
and 
> computers. Just like many of you, I have about 6 computers running
24/7 and 
> would like to prevent the loss of data and fried hardware as much as

> possible. And bear with me here, I'm not very smart when it comes to

> lightning strikes.
> 
> When a storm rolls in, do you turn off the computer? Rely on a cheap
surge 
> protector? Rely on an expensive surge protector? Unplug everything?
> 
> How does the lightning get to my computer? Does it strike the power
pole in 
> the back ally and then travel through the circuits in my house? Or
does it 
> hit my house directly?
> 
> Are lightning strikes common and is it worth getting that OPPD "whole
house 
> surge protection?"
> 
> I grew up in Hawaii and the last thing we were concerned with was a
bolt of 
> lightning.
> 
> 
> 
> Joe Catanzaro
> joecatanzaro at cox.net 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> OLUG mailing list
> OLUG at olug.org 
> http://lists.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug 
> 

-- 
 [ Jon H. Larsen  - email: relayer at omahadirect dot net         ]
 [ ICQ#: 10412618 - http://www.animesunday.org/jonl               ]
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