- Frequently Asked Questions -

Q. What are the main types of power quality problems?
A. There are three main types of power quality problems: Blackouts, Brownouts and Electrical Pollution.

Q. What is “Electrical Pollution”?
A. “Electrical Pollution” consists of the external transients and surges caused by lightning, power grid switching, brownouts, blackouts and large load switching, as well as the internally produced transients and electrical noise caused by motor controls, electronic equipment, load switching and other transient generators.

Q. What are the main problems caused by “Electrical Pollution”?
A. The main problems are catastrophic failures and long term degradation of sensitive electronic and electrical equipment and machinery; lost data and malfunctions of communications and IT equipment as well as downtime and frustration.

Q. What can be done about “Electrical Pollution”?
A. Installing a Surge Pure SPD (Surge Protection Device) in your facility is the first and best line of defense against the problems caused by “Electrical Pollution”

Q. What is a Surge Pure - Surge Protection Device (SPD)?
A. A Surge Pure SPD is a passive electronic module which connects directly to the power lines, circuits and outlets of your building. When it senses that a transient voltage exceeds the normal operating level, it instantly turns “on”, suppressing the surge by safely diverting it to earth ground. It quickly turns “off” when the transient is gone and allows the normal power to continue flowing to your equipment.

Q. How does the Surge Pure SPD prevent equipment damage?
A. Damage is caused by high voltage transients containing large amounts of energy that breakdown the input semiconductors and insulation of electronic equipment. By diverting this transient energy before it gets in the building distribution system, the SPD protects downstream equipment from damage. The same damaging affect applies to motors, lighting, HVAC and automation equipment.

Q. Why is “Electrical Pollution” the most costly to ignore and the least costly to eliminate?
A. Ignoring “Electrical Pollution” will eventually cost you thousands of dollars in repair of catastrophic failures, deteriorated equipment, lost production, wasted man-hours, corrupted computer data, downtime, etc. However, installing a relatively low cost Surge Pure surge protection system will eliminate these problems and protect your assets. It is much less costly than UPS systems, standby generators and other types of power conditioning equipment.

Q. Why is the Surge Pure SPD System so innovative?
A. Surge Pure has a unique “SE” Single Element Technology, which uses individual large suppression elements capable of safely handling high levels of surge current. This insures that the SPD will never degrade, even after multiple strikes. Many other surge protectors are constructed using small multi-elements in parallel to obtain a high surge rating. These small elements are prone to degradation due to unequal sharing of the high transient currents leaving the user only partially protected.

Q. What do you mean by “non-degrading” TVSS?
A. “Non-degrading” TVSS (Transient Voltage Surge Suppressor) means that the Surge Pure will not loose its ability to handle high peak currents with time or use. Surge Pure uses large, 40 and 53 mm diameter MOV’s (Metal Oxide Varistor) in all its '‘Non-degrading Single Element Technology” TVSS. This means that Surge Pure retains its full surge current capability for its lifetime with no reduction in its capability. Many other manufacturers use a large number of smaller MOV’s in parallel to “build up” their ratings. This type of “multi-element” construction looses some of its ability to handle surges each time it operates. The Surge Pure Mach 2 rated at 45,000 amps per mode all the way up to the Mach 6 rated at 320,000 amps per mode maintain their full ratings for their lifetime.

Q. How many surge protectors do I need in my building?
A. The Surge Pure SPD works best when applied as recommended by the IEEE Emerald Book, (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). A high energy SPD should be placed at the service entrance to the building, a category C primary location. This removes the high energy transients from the distribution system. Then lower rated SPD’s should be applied at the category B secondary locations on the distribution power panels for each critical load. This method of placing SPD modules creates a “cascading grid of protection”, protecting each individual load from any residual external transients as well as any internally generated transients.

Q. What does a “cascading grid of protection” really mean?
A. This is a term for the placement of Surge Pure SPD modules at strategic locations in a facility so that all the equipment is protected from internally as well as externally generated transients. The primary protector at the service entrance performs the initial “coarse” protection and then the secondary protector at a sub-panel or on a low voltage circuit performs a “fine” protection, limiting the transient to harmless levels. This “cascading grid” of multiple protection levels insures that there will be no equipment damage.

Q. How does Surge Pure SPD provide “circuit isolation” from transients?
A. By connecting the Surge Pure SPD modules at power panels in parallel with all the loads connected at that point, they are able to block transients coming from any direction and effectively provide “isolation” of each load from the others connected at that same point.

Q. If I have panel mounted Surge Pure surge protection, do I still need plug-in protection?
A. Plug-in protection is for category A locations. A plug-in protector alone without upstream panel protection at the category B or C locations is ineffective. Plug-in protectors do not have the surge current capacity to handle large transients by themselves. When used downstream in a cascaded configuration, the SPD can provide good protection for very critical loads by clamping at the local 120 volt level. They are also very beneficial by stopping locally generated transients on the same circuit from affecting nearby equipment.

Q. What are Blackouts and Brownouts?
A. Blackouts are complete losses of electrical power for a period of time. They generally can be longer than a half cycle of the sine wave up to hours in duration. They can be caused by accidents which disrupt the distribution system or by opened circuits that may be caused by overloads or short circuits. Brownouts are reductions in the amplitude of the power to the point where the lights may dim and equipment may trip off by internal protective devices. During Brownouts, many types of equipment may try to draw more current, overheat and become damaged. Brownouts may be caused intentionally when the power company reduces the distribution voltage during periods of high demand or unintentionally by high overloads.

Q. What are the solutions for Blackouts and Brownouts?
A. Many Blackout and Brownout problems can be eliminated by installing various types of back-up power supplies. Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS’s) contain batteries and can provide smooth instantaneous carryover for a short period of time. Standby generators may be started automatically if power is lost, but they take several seconds to begin supplying power. Thus, for long term operation of critical loads, a combination of both UPS’s and generators is often used.

Q. Do I need a SPD if I have a UPS on my power system?
A. Yes. A UPS is NOT a SPD! In fact it is necessary to provide SPD protection for the UPS so it will not be damaged if there are transients present on the power system at the input to the UPS. In addition, all of the other equipment in your facility that is not connected to the UPS is unprotected and susceptible to transients and must be protected.

Q. Does a transformer provide transient protection?
A. No. A transformer does not stop high frequency transients like lightning. A typical lightning transient is several hundred micro-seconds in duration. This is so fast that it jumps thru the inter-winding capacitance of the transformer and appears on the secondary side at about the same amplitude as before the transformer. Thus, it is necessary to provide protection on the low voltage side as well as the high voltage side of the transformer. For example, if the transient voltage is limited to 800 volts peak on the 460 volt primary side, it will also appear as 800 volts on the 120 volt secondary side. This 800 volts is too high for 120 volt equipment and must be limited to 200-250 volts by another SPD rated for operation on 120 volt systems.

Q. What about other types of power conditioners, constant voltage transformers, series filters, etc.
A. Each type of power conditioner has some specific purpose usually associated with regulating the steady state voltage, but NOTHING stops transients better at a lower cost compared to a Surge Pure SPD!

Q. What is a “series connected” surge protector?
A. Surge Pure SPD units are ‘parallel connected’ surge protectors. “Series connected” units are hooked up directly in series with the load and thus must handle all the load current. Because their size is dependent on the amount of current drawn by the load they are generally more expensive and usually only available in ratings of 20 to 30 amperes for 120/240 single phase volt loads. They are typically only suitable for category A applications because they have very limited surge current capability. Thus they must be protected by an upstream “parallel connected” suppressor at a category B or C location. Many incorporate EMI/RFI filters for high frequency noise filtering.

Mach 1 – Applications up to 100kW Systems - Multi-Element – Residential use –
Commercial & Industrial use Must be Down Line from a Mach 2 or larger –
For IEEE Cat. B Sub-Panels / Secondary Locations only – Rule of thumb 5 Hp loads and down

Mach 2 – Applications up to 250kW Systems - Non-Degrading Single Element Technology
For IEEE Cat. B & C Locations – Distribution Panels, Lighting Panels & HVAC Systems

Mach 3 – Applications up to 250kW Systems - Place at Load – Standard TVSS Features Plus
AST- Active Sine Wave Tracking – High Frequency Filtering to Provide Ultra Pure
Power for Your Most Sensitive Instrumentation, Life Support and Automation Equipment
EMI /RFI Filtering (Electro Magnetic Interference / Radio Frequency Interference)
Non-Degrading Single Element Technology - For IEEE Cat. B Secondary Locations

Mach 4 – Applications up to 500kW Systems - Non-Degrading Single Element Technology
For IEEE Cat. B & C Locations – Large Equipment & Service Entrances

Mach 5 – Applications up to 1000kW Systems - Non-Degrading Single Element Technology
For IEEE Cat. C Locations – Service Entrances & Heavy Industrial Loads

Mach 6 – Applications up to 2500kW Systems - Non-Degrading Single Element Technology
For IEEE Cat. C Locations – Ultra-High Energy Primary Level Protection for Very Large
Service Entrances or When Extreme Exterior Transient Activity is Present

Q. What is the Amperage of the Main Disconnect / Distribution Panel?
- 100, 200, 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 2000, 4000Amp

Q. What is the Line Voltage?
- 1PH – 240Volt 3PH – 208, 480, 600Volt

Amperage of Main Disconnect X (multiplied) by Line Voltage = ? kW System Examples:

600 Amp CDP x 208 Volt x v3 = 216.2 kW System: use 208 Volt Mach 2
2000 Amp Main x 480 Volt x v3 = 1,663 kW System: use 480 Volt Mach 6
600 Amp MCC x 480 Volt x v3 = 498.8 kW System: use 480 Volt Mach 4
800 Amp Main x 600 Volt x v3 = 831.4 kW System: use 600 Volt Mach 5

Q. Is the Service Single Phase, or if Three Phase is it Wye or Delta?
Mach 3 is to be installed at point of load connection. Mach 3 features EMI/RFI noise filtering and is best effective at the load over panel mount. When mounted at panel level the wires in the pipes traveling to sensitive loads will pick up the Electrical Magnetic Interference and Radio Frequency Interference in the air rendering the effectiveness of the Mach 3. Panel boards in computer rooms will see the added benefits from the Mach 3 noise filtration providing ultra pure power to all electronically sensitive loads. When sizing units it may be vital to up size by one or two Mach sizes. Hi-Energy Main Service Entrance best recommend is the Mach 5 featuring a ‘Duel Triangle Design’ or the Mach 6 that features a ‘Quad Triangle Design’, both designs offer closed-couple with super fast response times.