3 phase surge protection

[Guest112]

I have a job coming up regarding the title, installing a surge protection unit to a main mccb panel, as far as I'm aware currently is that I will be using a spare way on the mccb panel to supply the surge unit, but that is as much information that I currently have, Anyone have similar experience? the last surge protection I installed was on a smaller scale in line with a 3 phase cu...

 

[cossie400]

Yep, we have installed them before, we used "furse" units from RS.

 

[GMES]

Agree with cossie I always use furse get mine through electric centre though not the cheapest make but hassle free I have fitted about a dozen now and never had a problem, well worth the money.

 

[cossie400]

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1786663.pdf

 

[GMES]

And also don't forget to order the enclosure for it as I don't think they come with one! You have to pay extra for it

 

[SibertSolar]

We supply the range of DEHN Type1 and Type2 units, for single or three phase - happy to help/quote if you want to send me a PM?

 

[Guest112]

thanks for the replies guys, I will forward all information to my engineer who can then make a decision regarding the make/design, like I said the last unit I fitted was below a 24way 3ph db as a stand alone unit with an in/out setup, can't say I've ever installed a unit from a spare way on an mccb panel, looking forward to installing it lol

 

[Knobhead]

From reading your first post I was a bit dubious about using a MCCB for this.

Now I notice the Furse unit recomends fuses.

 

[Guest112]

Thought I would update you all after your replies, we went with Furse units in the end £600 each!! Plan is that they will be mounted at the rear of the electrical panel fed via switch fuses on the front, one unit for each half of the panel, Easy peasy, cheers guys

 

[Lagentium]

Does the remote indicator come with the one you are looking at? Saves taking the covers off to check on the status of the unit!

 

[Knobhead]

I can’t help but wonder how much of this upsurge of the “requirement” for surge protection is warranted.
From the OP’s last post £600 per unit. What the hell are you protecting to deserve such a high level of protection.

Years ago I lived in the middle of nowhere at 1200’ elevation. TT supply and OH phone lines. OK I got fed up with the phones and fax machine giving up the ghost after a storm so I made surge diverters for them using transorbs, cost me all of £20. (The original phone point had carbon spark gap protection.) The transorbs stopped the problem.

At the time I was working on a 20MVA private system fed at 11KV via three OH lines. We were fitting early PC’s, PLC’s and data centre (sneeze near them and they’d commit suicide). Even with a storm over head they didn’t fail. Major network failures (transients) had no effect.

Later I was working on a 80MVA system, two data centres along with a large plant. OK the data centres had UPS systems, the rest of the plant was knee deep in electronics. Even a 1250KVA transformer exploding passed without incident.

Things are supposed to be more robust. So what is all the hype about?

 

[shanky887614]

Most of the time people say they need one because a device etc has broken after a storm.

It's usually down to them buying cheap ****, for example most off the shelf pc's have really cheap low quality psu in them.

The ones that are a little more expensive have surge protection etc built into them

 

[Guest112]

Unfortunately there will be no remote indicators, I was surprised when I was told to mount them inside the rear of the panel but necessary indication will be presented on the electrical panels, Tony I'm not completely sure of the reason for their requirement but the units are protecting a university and I assume there must be a large computer science department to justify the costs, all ready now for my Sunday electrical shutdown...cheers guys

 

[Knobhead]

So what is all the hype about?

So is there a hint of truth in my sarcasm ? ? ? ?

 

[Guest112]

aah right haha

 

[reelectrics]

I have used several spd on farm installs from surgedevices they are very cost effective solution when required.

 

[Knobhead]

Unfortunately there will be no remote indicators, I was surprised when I was told to mount them inside the rear of the panel but necessary indication will be presented on the electrical panels, Tony I'm not completely sure of the reason for their requirement but the units are protecting a university and I assume there must be a large computer science department to justify the costs, all ready now for my Sunday electrical shutdown...cheers guys

It would be interesting to hear how your “electrical shutdown” is planned and how it pans out in reality.
They never go as they should do.

As you saw in one of my previous posts I’ve worked on some large systems. Production and engineering would be at loggerheads before we even started to talk about an electrical shutdown.

It got so bad that I got a bit belligerent and thought “sod you”. I’d asked for a 10 minute outage. I could have done the switching on a live system but we were going through one of those “safety” phases that companies have.
OK it takes time to shut down and restart so we would be talking several hours to get things back to normal. Come the set time, everything’s still running, not a sign of even an attempt to shut down.
The ultimate sanction comes in the shape of an 11KV OCB and a little button on the front of it.
“Sod You!”
I pressed it.
Got my shutdown. (And my arse kicked)