The following examines a few of the key differences between Underwriters Laboratory(UL)’s required test for surge protective devices (SPDs); ANSI/UL 1449 Third Edition and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) required test for SPDs, IEC 61643-1.

Short Circuit Current Rating (SCCR): The capacity of current with which the tested SPD can withstand at the terminals where connected, without breaching the enclosure in any way.

UL: Tests the full product at twice the nominal voltage to see if entire product is completely offline. The entire product (as shipped) is tested; including metal oxide varistors (MOVs).

IEC: Test only looks at the terminals and the physical connections to determine if they are robust enough to handle the fault. MOVs are replaced with a copper block and a manufacturer’s recommended fuse is placed in-line (external to the device).

Imax: Per IEC 61643-1 – The crest value of a current through the SPD having an 8/20 waveshape and magnitude according to the test sequence of the class II operating duty test.

UL: Does not recognize the need for an Imax test.

IEC: An operating duty cycle test is used to ramp up to an Imax point (determined by the manufacturer). This is meant to find “blind points” […]

Choosing the right surge arrester(s) is a key factor to guarantee correct protection of the installation. A poorly designed Lightning & Surge protection system may lead to early ageing of the SPD and potential failure of the protective devices in the installation allowing damage to the primary systems up stream, thus defeating the rationale behind the protection being installed.

Prosurge does not provide a set of rules and guides to support acorrect design of the protection system according to the application. However we follow the IEC and UL lightning and surge protection standards. With this in mind we provide a cascaded system as laid down in the rules of the standard, not the rules of Prosurge.

In the field of industrial applications, a standard practice is to install a cascaded protection system based on several coordinated protective devices installed at different stages (LPZ’s). The benefit of this strategy is the fact that it allows a high discharge capacity close to the installation entrance along with a low residual voltage (level of protection) at the main incomer of installation of sensitive equipment.

The design of such a protective system is, amongst other factors, based on the assessment of information such as existence […]

Photovoltaic systems are technologically highly sensitive and a direct lightning strike would definitely destroy it. There is also yet another hazard,as a lightning strike could create surge voltage near the solar power system and these surge voltages can also destroy the system. The inverter is the primary point in need of protection. Usually, inverters will integrate surge-voltage protectors into their inverters. However, since these components only discharge small voltage peaks, you should consider using surge protective devices (SPD) in individual cases.

In the past, some manufacturers have used joule ratings in their specifications. They are not considered a good indicator for SPD performance and not recognized by any standard organizations. Prosurge doesn’t support this specification also.

Response time specifications are not supported by any standards organizations overseeing Surge Protective Devices.IEEE C62.62 Standard Test Specification for SPDs specifically mentions it should not be used as a specification.

The US power distribution system is a TN-C-S system. This implies that the Neutral and Ground conductors are bonded at the service entrance of each, and every, facility or separately derived sub-system. This means that the neutral-to-ground (N-G) protection mode within a multi-mode SPD installed at the service entrance panel is basically redundant. Further from this N-G bondpoint, such as in branch distribution panels, the need for this additional mode of protection is more warranted. In addition to the N-G protection mode, some SPDs can include line-to-neutral (L-N) and line-to-line (L-L) protection. On a three phase WYE system, the need for L-L protection is questionable as balanced L-N protection also provides a measure of protection on the L-L conductors.

Changes to the 2002 edition of the National Electrical Code® (NEC®) (www.nfpa.org) have precluded the use of SPDs on ungrounded delta power distribution systems. Behind this rather broad statement is the intention that SPDs should not be connected L-G as by so doing these modes of protection are creating pseudo grounds to the floating system. Modes of protection connected L-L are however acceptable.The high-leg delta system is a grounded system and as such allows for protection modes to be connected […]

The installation of SPDs is often poorly understood. A good SPD, incorrectly installed, can prove of little benefit in real-life surge conditions. The very high rate-of-change of current, typical of a surge transient, will develop significant volt drops on the leads connecting the SPD to the panel or equipment being protected. This can mean higher than desired voltages reaching the equipment during such a surge condition. Prosurge suggests that measures to counteract this effect include locating the SPD so as to keep interconnecting lead lengths as short as possible, twisting these leads together. Using a heavier gauge AWG cable helps to some extent but this is only a second order effect. It is also important to keep protected and unprotected circuits and leads separate to avoid cross coupling of transient energy.

This is a difficult question and depends on many aspects including – site exposure, regional is okeraunic levels and utility supply. A statistical study of lightning strike probability reveals that the average lightning discharge is between 30 and 40kA, while only 10% of lightning discharges exceed 100kA. Given that a strike to a transmission feeder is likely to share the total current received into anumber of distribution paths, the reality of the surge current entering a facility can be very much less than that of the lightning strike which precipitate it.

The ANSI/IEEE C62.41.1-2002 standard seeks to characterize the electrical environment at different locations throughout a facility. It defines the service entrance location as between a B and C environment, meaning that surge currents up to 10kA 8/20 can be experienced in such locations. This said, SPDs located in such environments are often rated above such levels to provide a suitable operating life expectancy, 100kA/phase being typical.

Although often used as separate terms in the surge industry, Transients and Surges are the same phenomenon. Transients and Surges can be current, voltage, or both and can have peak values in excess of 10kA or 10kV. They are typically of very short duration (usually >10 µs & <1 ms), with a waveform that has a very rapid rise to the peak and then falls off at a much slower rate. Transients and Surges can be caused by external sources such as lightning or a short circuit, or from internal sources such as Contactor switching, Variable Speed Drives, Capacitor switching, etc.

Temporary over voltages (TOVs) are oscillatory phase-to-ground or phase-to-phase over voltages that can last as little as a few seconds or as long as several minutes. Sources of TOV’s include fault reclosing, load switching, ground impedance shifts,single-phase faults and ferroresonance effects to name a few. Due to their potentially high voltage and long duration, TOV’s can be very detrimental to MOV-based SPD’s. An extended TOV can cause permanent damage to an SPD and render the unit inoperable. Note that while UL 1449 (3rd Edition) ensures that the SPD will not create a safety hazard under these conditions, SPDs […]

A direct lighting strike is the most powerful and difficult surge to protect against. Prosurge recommend that Proper grounding and bonding of the electrical system and employing proper surge protection can protect sensitive equipment. A SPD with a higher single surge current rating will perform best against this type of event, if the unit is properly installed and the grounding system is adequate.The maximum single withstand surge current rating is defined in IEEE SPD Standard C62.62.