Quote:
Originally Posted by Altavia
Nice overview!
I don't understand why they say a class 2 is functionally better than class 1 for inside?
Geeking out for a minute... Electrically, they connect to the same point in the breaker box.
Class 1 is connected directly to the buss bar using 2ga wire.
Class 2 is connected to the buss bar through a circuit breaker using 14ga wire.
In respect to a high voltage transient, seems Class 1 should have a lower impedance path to ground?
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You are thinking about power and voltage at Steady State which is not the case with a power surge.
When you get a power surge besides the over voltage level, the duration of the surge also varies. Many power surges are very fast, less than a millisecond or two so the length of wire between the circuit with the surge and the surge protector itself becomes significant. Because the Type-2 protector at the circuit breaker panel is the closest to all the branch circuits, it should catch almost all the power surges. The Type-1 surge protector at the meter, in relative terms, is too far from the origin of the surge if it doesn't originate from the power lines outside the house and won't catch it. If the surge duration was long then you are correct the Type-1 at the meter would have an effect in clamping the over voltage.
When you read the Eaton Ultra installation instructions, Eaton wants the surge protector to have the shortest wire length to the connection points inside your circuit breaker panel for this reason.