Surge Suppressors

Alan Muller

I took a look at the redi-volt site and was not impressed. I think surge supressors--properly designed and installed--work and supresssing surges. This is becoming more and more important--all or nearly all systems should have them. But the claim that they save electricity is silly. How could shunting spikes to ground reduce electric bills...?

John R. Hall

Valid claims?

What do you know about them as far as "energy savers?" My understanding is that they protect appliances from current surges and nothing more. Yet at least one company is advertising them as "energy savers." How is this possible?

Brian (Tankless) Wood

Surge suppressors

Hi John,
Please see my reply at Area51.

A slight correction; they are called voltage suppressors.

They suppress inrush current(and minimize damage) by clamping excess (spike & surge) voltage. Energy savings are extremely minimal, but the protection of equipment, and the potential for savings due to not having the protected equipment explode, can be many, many thousands of $$$$$.

Check out www.energysmart.com

I can supply units at lower prices than published at the website.

Have a great weekend all.

Brian in very, very hot Swampland.

P.S. I have lowered customers electricity bills by up to 40%. I installed Powerplanners on every motor in the homes, including the AC comp, evap fan, fridge, freezer, and washing machine. I have the bills on file for anyone to see, but can't attach them here because they contain all the customers billing info.

John R. Hall

Right name

Redi-Volt (www.redi-volt.com) calls them Voltage Surge Suppressors. A Louisiana contractor said these have been banned for sale in most of the U.S. except Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. I'm following up on what he said to get all sides of the story.

Brian (Tankless) Wood

Energy saving devices.

Hi again, John.

Do you remember this energy saving refrigeration device. It's called the "Arctic RMS", and was featured in your magazine a couple of years ago.

The website is www.smithenviro.com there is a link there to the article in hvacr.news.

I thought the guys hear might like to see it.

Regards,

Brian.

Unknown

Problems with some gas equipment

with Surge Suppresors. There was a problem with the polarity requirement of the integrated boards and some modules. This was an isolated problem I ran into a while back. Several failed boards later we disconnected the Surge Suppresors and no more problems. I advise customers and contractors not to use them. I have no actual tests or substantion other than these few experiences. I have never taken the time to follow up on them. They seem to work on other equipment however so I really do not know why they cause a problem only in isolated situations. I also do not remember brand names. Hope this helps. Now I am curious. Why have they been banned? Does this contractor in Lousiania have any info?

Sal Santamaura1

I'm not familiar with any

specific products mentioned, but can offer the following general information. Surge protection devices use one or more technologies which limit voltage supplied to equipment being protected, even when large voltage spikes (of natural or other origin) are present on the power line. I am unaware of any way they could save energy, except perhaps by making unnecessary the energy consumed in manufacturing of replacement equipment that would be required if a surge blew something up!

The only way someone might possibly try to claim -- incorrectly -- that a power line protection device reduces energy consumption could be associated with power factor (PF). PF describes the phase relationship between supply voltage and resultant current. A purely resistive load draws current exactly in phase with voltage and has a PF of 1. Typical motors, like those found in circulators, refrigerators, etc. present an inductive load to the line, result in a lagging current and end up with a PF roughly in the area of 0.9. If a power line protection device also coincidentally included exactly the correct amount of capacitive correction for an inductive motor load connected to it, it could bring that circuit's PF close to 1. However, the only impact PFs other than 1 have on end-users is how fat their wires must be, and even at 0.9 there's plenty of margin built into a home's service. Your electric meter doesn't care at what PF connected loads are operating; it will register exactly the same number of kWh regardless. Only your power company cares, since its transmission system must be sized accordingly. That's why utilities won't serve large industrial customers unless they have brought their PFs within a specified range near 1.

Another marketing myth debunked...