Surge protection / Brownout protection

[2fastdriving]

I had an "incident" that I won't discuss in detail here, but I will say that Ivan is helping me through it and talking me off the ledge.

I may have been the victim of a surge or brownout during a wind storm. I had all my equipment plugged into my RGPC 1200, which did no good at all, unfortunately. I thought it had some level of protection, but now I am not sure it does at all. It does other things well, I guess it just isn't designed to do that.

Regardless, I think I need to install a whole-house protection unit, due to where I live. we are prone to lots of brownouts and surges here. My main question is, does the term "surge protection" include brownouts? We have a lot of those here before the power goes out, typically. I would think that during a brownout, the surge protector would trip, and require a manual reset? If not, what would it really do...what if there is a brownout and the power comes back and that happens several times before finally going out? That seems to be the dance we get here

[2fastdriving]

Actually...they say it has surge protection.

http://www.richardgrayspowercompany....allel/1200.pdf

Maybe what I really need is something which "trips" when things get crazy, because the RGPC does not do that. Maybe it's not the surge or brownout that caused the problems, maybe it's the power cutting in and out quickly several times? I am struggling here because I don't know what I am trying to protect against.

[Higgens]

I'm not an electrician, but i understand a brownout to be undervoltage and a surge to be overvoltage. So it might be possible for a device that's designed to protect against a surge to do nothing at all when a brownout occurs.

[Masterlu]

Marc... For brown out protection, you need a unit that either provides a voltage regulated output, or a unit that has full battery back up.

[2fastdriving]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Marc... For brown out protection, you need a unit that either provides a voltage regulated output, or a unit that has full battery back up.

Maybe a whole house surge protection unit plus a regeneration unit is best? Would the rgpc 1200 no longer be needed in that scenario? Maybe I can sell to help fund these upgrades.

[jdandy]

Marc.......Gary is correct. Typically a brownout is when voltage drops below 15% of its normal voltage level and lasts for an extended period. In other words, a brownout is not the same as a momentary voltage sag. A surge is typically a voltage level that is considerably higher, say 100 volts to a thousand volts or more above the normal voltage level. Some utility power providers are notoriously poor at maintaining stable end user voltages. A small surge, usually referred to as a momentary peak, can be a 15 or 20 volt spike that comes and goes, often in about a one or two seconds duration. Those types of momentary line voltage fluctuations are generally harmless to audio gear.

The business of a well designed surge arrestor is to capture and shunt to ground those voltages that are usually higher than twice the rated utility voltage. A surge arrestors internal parts normally clamp voltage spikes in excess of 200 to 300 volts and shunt them to earth through the shortest path to your driven ground rod. Most surge arrestors are not designed to clamp voltages in the range of 250 volts or less. A well designed surge arrestor will monitor and protect both phases and the neutral wire on a typical house service panel. For my home I use Ditek DTK-120/240SA surge arrestors. I have two service panels and one sub-panel. The service panels are protected with Ditek surge arrestors and the sub-panel for the recording studio is protected with a Square-D surge arrestor.

There is nothing you can do to protect yourself from brownouts without employing an uninterruptable power supply, typically a battery backup power supply of some sort, or to a greater extreme with a backup generator. I use the PurePower 2000 AC regenerator with battery backup power for my studio system. I use an APC 600UPS battery backup in my living room system to backup the two music servers, the K-03 and the C2300. The two PS Audio Power Plant Premier AC regenerators in the living room system do help to some degree with small voltage sags and peaks. They are able to maintain a constant 120 volts output with minor plus or minus voltage levels. I also use UPS units to backup my widescreen televisions and satellite receivers in three rooms, and UPS backup units on two desktop computers.

Hope you find some of this information helpful.

[Rilands]

Originally Posted by 2fastdriving

Maybe I can sell to help fund these upgrades.

I hate to say this, but why would anyone buy one after this thread? If I were buying one today it seems obvious the PurePower is far superior.

I think protecting our equipment is the top priority, not to maybe get a tiny sound improvement. Like you Marc, I figured you'd be safe with a $2000.00 surge protector, especially a RG. You might as well of been using a cheap Target power Strip.

It's messed up. I'm glad I live in Ca. and seldom have any power issues. We do have brown outs on occasions though, and my equipment all came right back on with my Furmans. I guess my brown out are different than yours.

I am definitely not questioning Dan. I know Dan was in that business and he does know what he's talking about when it comes to electricity.

Your situation sucks. Sorry to hear the news.

[jdandy]

Mike.......Not to change the subject but I really like your new avatar. Very cool.

[jdandy]

Marc.......If memory serves me right, the PS Audio Dectet has over and under voltage protection. It will shut the power off to connected gear if there is a threatening over or under voltage situation. You might want to check into Dectet on the PS Audio website.

Here is a link to my http://www.audioaficionado.org/ps-au...et-review.html

[crwilli]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Marc.......If memory serves me right, the PS Audio Dectet has over and under voltage protection. It will shut the power off to connected gear if there is a threatening over or under voltage situation. You might want to check into Dectet on the PS Audio website. Here is a link to my http://www.audioaficionado.org/ps-au...et-review.html

As always Dan you are thinking ahead of the rest of us. I put in a whole house surge protector and a Dectet in an attempt to solve multiple issues. One of them being brown outs.