I was talking to Blu the other night about how his house was having close lighting strikes and whether he had protection, and how my place has overkill protection. He wanted to see it, so here it is:
This is a "normal" household switchboard.
Well, I don't do normal.
This is our mains board in the meter box:
And the 3 modules on the left are the primary lightning protection modules:
they break the main impulse current to a more manageable level so the surge arrestor board can handle it. They have their own dedicated earth stake.
A "normal" one would look like this:
It has about a 2.5mm cable. Sometimes they are attached to a water pipe.
This is mine: ( one of the two)
Then we go inside the basement area to the main distribution board and the surge arrestor board:
Inside view of the surge board:
Inside the main dist board. I like a lot of circuit separation. Nothing worse that having 11 people over for a LAN and the wife comes home and turns on the kettle. All you hear then is a collective "ooohhhh" and the spinning down of hard drives, LOL
The big rotary switch is the red phase alternate supply switch. All the essential equipment is on one phase with a generator backup (PCs, fridge, lighting, hot water)
Plus we have UPSs at the two PCs (not the laptops) to bump up or down the voltage and protect from any in-house spiking (like if a motor blows up)
So it'll pretty much take a direct hit. Just got to finish my labelling.
This is a "normal" household switchboard.
Well, I don't do normal.
This is our mains board in the meter box:
And the 3 modules on the left are the primary lightning protection modules:
they break the main impulse current to a more manageable level so the surge arrestor board can handle it. They have their own dedicated earth stake.
A "normal" one would look like this:
It has about a 2.5mm cable. Sometimes they are attached to a water pipe.
This is mine: ( one of the two)
Then we go inside the basement area to the main distribution board and the surge arrestor board:
Inside view of the surge board:
Inside the main dist board. I like a lot of circuit separation. Nothing worse that having 11 people over for a LAN and the wife comes home and turns on the kettle. All you hear then is a collective "ooohhhh" and the spinning down of hard drives, LOL
The big rotary switch is the red phase alternate supply switch. All the essential equipment is on one phase with a generator backup (PCs, fridge, lighting, hot water)
Plus we have UPSs at the two PCs (not the laptops) to bump up or down the voltage and protect from any in-house spiking (like if a motor blows up)
So it'll pretty much take a direct hit. Just got to finish my labelling.
