A: The reason for this apparent anomaly is the fact that we are not attempting to protect equipment exposed on a hill. We are protecting equipment inside a building where surges are transmitted to equipment via the building wiring not through the air. Fortunately, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) has compiled research on lighting induced surges outside and inside buildings. The results of this research are documented in C62.41.2, and it is from this document that the 6000 volt, 3000 amp spec is taken. The essence of what this research found was that, due to arc-over at the service entrance and within the building wiring, the worst-case surges that would ever be found at an outlet were 6000 volts, 3000 amps with 90 Joules of energy. This was the design goal for SurgeX, and these figures are also used by the federal government in the USA for Adjunct Endurance Testing, which qualifies surge protector performance. The SurgeX surge protection technology is designed to handle these worst-case surges, and has been verified for 1000 such surges.

A: In a word... no. We recommend that SurgeX units are placed close to the equipment to be protected. This is because long wires can pick up surges and transients by magnetic coupling, and also because this strategy protects the equipment from transients generated within a building. Conventional shunt mode surge suppressors (such as MOV-based products) require a short connection to earth in order to work effectively. For this reason they have to be near the service entrance, but this is usually not where the equipment is located.

A: There is one case where we would make a recommendation: that SurgeX is not plugged into a conventional MOV-based surge suppressor. This is not because anything would blow up or not work, it is simply because MOV-based surge suppressors contaminate earth, and once earth is contaminated you can't un-contaminate it. One of the benefits of SurgeX is that it doesn't contaminate earth. Plugging a SurgeX into an MOV based surge suppressor would be like buying bottled water and then running it through lead pipes. However, there is no problem in plugging a conventional surge suppressor into a SurgeX.

A: Wrong! Open up your UPS and you will find MOVs inside. Every year we hear of instances where a UPS gets damaged or equipment plugged into a UPS gets damaged during a lightning storm. Play it safe, protect your UPS by plugging it into a SurgeX!

A: We don't publish a response time because this is associated with components like MOVs, avalanche diodes etc. parts that have to "switch on". SurgeX uses a combination of passive and active technologies, which slow down the surge so that circuit response time is not a factor. SurgeX uses a special type of inductor, called a surge reactor, in series with the live wire. The main component of the surge reactor is coiled copper wire, and copper wire has no turn-on time or response time. The fact that we use transistors and SCRs in our products is not an issue regarding response time because these parts follow the surge reactor, which slows down all surges and transients. So parts which do have a finite turn-on time like SCRs can respond to slowed-down surges and transients without any problem. If they didn't, SurgeX wouldn't pass the 1000-surge Endurance Test with such a low let-through voltage.

A: I think you need to ask why companies producing MOV-based surge suppressors don't tell you that MOVs have limited lifetimes when this is clearly published in MOV manufacturers' data sheets. Every MOV manufacturer publishes lifetime graphs so it is not like they're trying to keep it a secret, and the companies using these components will certainly be aware of this. There is a link below that will take you to Panasonic's web site and bring up a PDF of a 20mm MOV (the size and type most commonly used in the better surge suppressors). If you look at the bottom of page 2 you will see an Impulse Derating graph which plots the number of surges the device can handle compared to the size of surge current. http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/components/pdf/AWA0000PE8.pdf

A: In order to get electricity from the generating station to your equipment the power has to flow through transformers and copper wire a lot of copper wire! The power companies try to keep the final voltage close to 230V but it is usually one or two (or more) volts low or high. The series element inside SurgeX that concerns some people uses heavy gauge copper wire (a heavier gauge than house wiring). The fact is, there is less copper wire in a SurgeX than between the circuit breaker panel and your equipment. Any slight variation in voltage due to SurgeX will be less than the normal variations caused by power company fluctuations or voltage drops in the copper wiring feeding the equipment.

A: Surges and spikes are both short-term over-voltage conditions. The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably so your question is valid. Although the term "spike" is used in reference to large surges, a spike is normally considered to be a very short duration event that usually does not pose damage to equipment but may be audible as a "pop". A surge is usually considered to be of higher energy due to a longer duration or a higher peak voltage. So the difference between a spike and a surge might simply be the voltage and/or duration. Typically, spikes and surges on power lines are millionths of a seconds in duration and can be as much as 6000 volts in the vicinity of a lightning strike. SurgeX is designed to block and contain any short-term over-voltage events regardless of specific parameters.