Subscriber Discussion

Question On Power Protection

FM
Fabien Monceaux
Apr 27, 2015

I have hit a rough patch, we have had some crazy weather as of late. Lots of power surges and lighting strikes last week alone I had 1 hard drive, 1 dvr and 1 camera fail all at different clients locations. I was worndering what so you do if anything to help prevnent this and I welcome all ideas. Some were anolog and some ip systems, Thanks...

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Gert Molkens
Apr 28, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Use UPS power supply to feed those. Beware, only true Online UPS systems will give you a complete protection. Offline and line interactive won't do, they're not realy uninteruptable either. As you can image, online is the most expensive of the three...

FM
Fabien Monceaux
Apr 28, 2015

Thanks for that info, that is a pricey option on the residental side. Do you think a surge protector on the POE switch would help? Thank you for the response!

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Gert Molkens
Apr 29, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Fabien,

depends on what surge protection you would want to use. I don't have any faith in the low cost surge protectors you can find just about everywhere. In case yiu have a serious ovevoltage/ Lightning strike nearby your site, these will certainly not provide adequate protection.

Decent surge protection is done in three censecutive steps: rough, midle and fine protection. You can find lots of info on this on this company's site: http://www.dehn-international.com. The drawback off course is that it will cost more than ready of the shelf stuff that you'll find at wholesalers.

The problem with these basic surge protectors is that they don't provide much of a protection but your customer will be expecting his equipment to almost survive a direct litghning strike because you sold them protection.

BD
Bob Damrau
May 01, 2015

Polyphaser at the power panel.

FM
Fabien Monceaux
May 01, 2015

That looks interesting! I am doing some more research on that, thank you much.

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Christopher Freeman
May 23, 2015

Use Power Conditioners with ups for surge and timed response. Quality Counts

Use Choke Coils on all lines at the incoming of each line.

verify ground potentials and connections to see that they are well grounded.

Ground all chasy's, equip.,racks, housings

this should take care of the problem. usually in high lightning areas the grounds go bad and no one suspects.

I have had expensive ups equip fail due to this issue. with good ups to protect it.

FM
Fabien Monceaux
May 23, 2015

I have definitely started using the power conditioners and surge protectors now that is mandatory in order for the warranty to stay valid. Where do you get these choke coils I have never heard of that and I asked a couple of my vendors and that item never came up with them.

Thanks for your help!

BD
Bob Damrau
May 23, 2015

Adding inductance (L) and capacitance (C) as local treatment for RF spectrum noise follows many solution approaches. A Google "rf choke" returns 300k+ hits for review. A clamp coil approach is commonly used for noisy line relief.

Mandatory for vendor warranty validity?

FM
Fabien Monceaux
May 23, 2015

Got a Ferrite, like used on many high end hdmi and usb cables. Thanks, I will find a supplier and start using them ASAP.

BD
Bob Damrau
May 23, 2015

Glad you've found a suitable project solution.

LMK as power provisioning issues arise.

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Chuck Janzer
May 24, 2015
IPVMU Certified

I'm a big believer in TrippLite Isobar series of power protection devices. They have saved customer equipment a number of times, giving up their life to protect what is plugged into them - very dramatic failures. Normally I use the four outlet device for about $35.00 US. I use them along with the APC or other manufactures normal UPS devices when needing a UPS. Seldom do I spend the money for an on-line UPS, but I agree that is the best. We've gone to using DiTek surge devices on anything leaving the building - camera cables, phone lines, camera power, PTZ control wiring...... For some things that make sense, just use a toroid and loop the cable through it once or twice. You need an impedance bump to make lightning go another direction. Our techs stock them on the trucks, loop a phone line through them a few times or an unattached garage door contact, a long run across a high bay warehouse, anything where a slight surge might be a problem. For example this one from MCM Electronics.

Toroid

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