westom:
The post above was nicely done.
The post above was nicely done.
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What does a fuse do during a surge? This introduces another concept critical to surge protection. Destructive surges are current sources - not voltage sources. Voltage will increase as necessary so that the current will still flow. Anything that tries to stop a surge will only see voltage increase high enough to blow through. Nothing stops a destructive surge.
What does a surge protector (cited by lecman) do? First, it claims to block a surge. Nonsense.
Third, will those tiny semiconductors stop what three miles of sky could not? Of course not.
That protector does not protect from any typically destructive surge.
It protects from what is already made irrelevant by circuits inside electronics (ie galvanic isolation).
Anything adjacent to an appliance can only stop, block, or absorb a surge. That is impossible.
A surge will increase voltage as necessary to blow through any such protector.
What happens when a surge on the hot wire (maybe 5000 volts) is shunted to the neutral? 5000 volts on the hot wire AND 4600 volts on a neutral wire. Where is the protection?
The protection is what absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules. Earth ground. A protector either connects tens of thousands of amps to earth ground. Or that protector does nothing (is a profit center).
MOV are used in the effective and ineffective solution. Protection is not about MOVs. Protection is always about earth ground.