There is a need to protect the compact fluorescent bulbs, electronic ballasts, and LEDs that businesses are installing to save money. Also, some homes have very elaborate chandeliers and other hard to reach lights, and who wants the hassle with replacing bulbs that are difficult to reach? And, commercial and industrial facilities are converting the old magnetic ballasts to the new electronic ballasts and LED lighting system. All electronic ballasts and LED drivers contain a circuit board which, like any circuit board, is very sensitive to transient surges. Compact fluorescent bulbs also contain sensitive circuit boards. Surge protectors are a must in this day and age!
All customers should be protecting panels feeding electronics, electronic ballasts and LEDs. The first priority is to install suppression filter units (also known as surge protection devices (SPD’s) or transient protection devices (TPD’s)) directly on the lighting panels. Case studies show the great results and quick paybacks that customers are seeing when using TPD’s (surge suppression units with the enhanced transient filter) to protect electronic ballasts and lighting systems. Just as everyone protects the circuit boards in computers and large screen televisions with plug in strip surge suppressors, so too should everyone protect the circuit boards in electronic ballasts and compact fluorescent bulbs with TTLP panel mount surge suppression with enhanced transient filtering. IEEE also sees the need for protecting electronic ballasts. (See attached IEEE document)
Case studies reveal the quick return on investment using surge suppression with enhanced transient filtering to protect lighting panels. While the ballast manufacturers will tell you that electronic ballasts should last 15 years or longer, we visit many end users who are replacing electronic ballasts every three years, or even more frequently. The key to protection and savings is the effectiveness of our enhanced transient filter cleaning up the power. Whether the circuit boards are in electronic ballasts or in computers, even small transients can affect them. Surge suppression is for the medium and large transients and is necessary to protect equipment from large external transients like lightning and power company surges. But, filtering is the key to protecting electronics from day to day internally generated transients.
TPD™ (Transient Protection Design) is a very green product, and we endorse them. We do not want to fill up our landfills with prematurely failed bulbs, ballasts, and other e-waste, or for that matter, and type of prematurely failed electrical equipment (pumps, motors, compressors, etc.). TPD will help get the maximum life out of all electronic and electrical equipment and will also help ensure sustainability goals that are at the heart of all green projects. The first priority should be to place suppression/filter units on every sub-panel feeding critical loads. Normal load switching of equipment on a circuit in any unprotected panel can surge the equipment on the other circuits if no suppressor is installed on that panel, and only the sub panel units can stop these internally generated transients. Likewise, transients created by the operation of equipment on one panel can surge equipment on other panels within a facility. With its enhanced transient filter, the TPD units installed on the sub panel can protect against large surges generated external to the facility and also stop the internally generated low magnitude, high-frequency transients that can cause glitches, lockups, and reprogramming issues, and slowly degrade sensitive electronics. Additionally, if lightning should strike the facility or near the facility and inductively couple onto building wiring, and no Transient Protection Device is located on the subpanel, distribution panel, or MCC (motor control center) that the wire is run from, lightning could go back to that panel or MCC and spread out to the other circuits on that panel. Also, if any sub panel feeds parking lot lights, signs, security gates, rooftop HVAC equipment, or any other outside electrical equipment, lightning could strike at or near the equipment and travel back into the sub panel.
Both Florida Hospital and Triple Crown Casinos protected their sub-sub panels using industrial grade TPS surge products, also available at AC Electric, and you can read about the great results in the attached case studies. Return on investment was less than one year. Following IEEE recommended practices, and particularly in areas prone to lightning or bad power from the grid, larger TPD units should also be placed by the service entrance panel or on distribution panels (and any motor control centers) to limit the effect of large impulses coming from outside the facility. With the two-stage approach of upstream and downstream protection, there should never be any surge damage to equipment fed by a protected sub panel from internally or externally generated transients, no matter how large. Protecting all the electrical panels protects the electrical system, protects all the equipment and controls, extends the life of all electrical and electronic equipment, and is the number one priority in protecting a facility.
Call us today to evaluate your system’s needs. If interested in the products we offer by TPD, go to our Products tab or simply click here. Installing surge protectors on equipment is not a “one size fits all”. AC Electric coordinates with TPD to give you the best installation and equipment for your total protection. Contact us today to get a quote on your equipment’s Transient Protection Design!