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Your One Bullet Point Solution; Electrical Upgrade

Two points; I am well aware of many threads on topic of electrical service. I do not have time to read hundreds of posts, but wish to distill them down with your help. I will also post this on the Tech Forum to get wider response:

Doing service upgrade to 100A. I plan on adding a whole house surge protector, type 2, add on to panel after the service enters house. Panel to the HT/Music room is not under consideration, as it was all updated when the room was built.

If anyone has important info/contradictory info on that plan, please inform.

What I would like to know in shorthand form from the community from those who have Done upgrades:

1. Recommended Panel? Brand, any difference?

2. I currently have sub-panel for HT/Audio room which I’m tempted to keep. I understand that this is a good move.
Electrician can sum all into a larger panel, but I have reservations. Comments/recommendations?

3. Particular wiring/breakers for panel/sub-panel for audio use?

4. Particular surge protector recommend.

As the topic has been covered much, notation form comments are welcome. Thanks for helping!



douglas_schroeder

Showing 5 responses by erik_squires

erik_squires
15,861 posts
 
The thing to keep in mind is that AFAIK, all these in panel surge protectors have the same, relatively high, clamp voltage, and activation time.

Series mode protectors have low clamp voltage and no activation time.

Yes to belt and suspenders:  Get a panel, get a unit in your room.

If you really want it all installed, then get the in-panel, simple protection, and use a unit like this for the individual circuits:

https://www.brickwall.com/products/20-amp-panel-mount-surge-protector
erik_squires
15,861 posts
 
Hey @ejr1953 - I don’t think that’s a down grade, honestly.

I know it looks impressive, but look at the clamping voltage. The in-panel units should be rated the same, and are cheaper in large part because they don’t take an extra case.

The only down side of them IMHO may be lack of an audible alert when they blow.

As I wrote before though:  In panel surge protectors are superior due to the lack of cabling. They have an intimate, high frequency attachment to the power buss. Surges tend to be high frequency, far above 60 Hz.  Any induction on the line to the surge protector will increase the effective clamping voltage (a bad thing). 

So, yeah, I get it, those big metal boxes with 3 gauge wiring look all that, but they are 1 breaker pair plus the wiring away from the surge.

erik_squires
15,861 posts
 
I will have exterior whole house surge protector put on by elec. co., which is a bargain to help protect nice gear, and may put an additional one inside on panel,


The thing to keep in mind about the whole house protectors, which are important, is the clamping voltage and activation time. Often the clamping voltage (starts to work) ~ 300 V. It’s right on the label. And wow, those levitons are expensive, and still need a breaker. The in-panel units run ~ $80, need no additional breaker, and have lower wire impedance. I’d stick one as close to the incoming power as possible.

Furman and other devices with series mode protection kick in (and I may be wrong) around 140V and have no activation time. I wrote about this somewhat here:

https://inatinear.blogspot.com/2019/04/power-management-for-frugal-audiophiles.html

Oh, also, the impedance of wiring between your listening room and the panel can increase the voltage there before the whole house protector kicks in even higher.  Series mode devices don't suffer from this delay or from the additional clamp voltage.  So, lots of good reasons to have both. :)
erik_squires
15,861 posts
 
Any thoughts or consideration of adding a separate copper ground rod for the audio only panel?


Do it, but you MUST bond it to the rest of the grounds.  You can't create an independent ground network that is separate from the house ground that is bonded to neutral at the service entrance.

Also, and this is from reading a long long time ago, I have a faint memory that research regarding surge protectors and lightning strikes showed that bare armored ground (BAG) was superior than merely using a ground cable to the panel. Something about the armor carrying high frequency ground currents better.  Usually the armor is not required or installed.
erik_squires
15,861 posts
 
Square D and Siemens have a fantastic reputation and I’ve never heard anyone complain of their quality, unlike GE.

Best in-panel breakers are... in-panel. That is, they take 2 breaker slots and bond right to the busses, with a single pig tail to ground. The add-ons are not bad, but the extra impedance of the wires and that they necessitate taking up breakers themselves limits them in my mind.

So, whichever panel you get, get the same brand protectors that sit on the bus bars.

And, as a reminder, as you are aware, these surge protectors usually recommend you have a point-of-use protector near sensitive electronics as well.

There is another alternative but I have no experience with them, and that is in-meter surge protection.
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