According to a report published by International Copper Association in London ‘75% of all computer failures are caused by power quality problems’. This means that most computer failures are not due to ‘hardware problems’ and therefore a large % of repair costs can be prevented by improving power quality.
Electricity board generates quality power at power stations but all sorts of interference’s along the distribution lines degrade the power quality.
Whilst harmonic distortions, voltage variations, high frequency disturbances, voltage black outs are all power quality problems, transient voltage surges are the most disastrous type that could be prevented economically. This paper is concerned with reducing damages due to voltage surges commonly known as spikes.
Electrical & electronic equipment are designed to operate on clean power.
When they get ‘contaminated’ power, equipment can get damaged and more often subjected to degradation i.e. a ‘slow death’. Failures due to degradation are incorrectly construed to be failures due to hardware problems and as such the cause of the problem is usually not resolved.
Cost of damages caused by lightning is many time s greater than what you’d imagined Cost of down time, production loses, idling staff etc recreation of lost data, delays in getting spares repairs, waste on manpower to attend to the above losses customer good will due to above.
Clarion International Ltd, Sri Lanka’s leader in Energy Management Systems for over 18 years with several hundred leading companies as customers, is now offering a very economical and simple to fix British Surge Protector to the computer users in Sri Lanka.
Identification of surges and spikes as a phenomenon that causes destruction is relatively recent and there is a remarkable lack of knowledge not only on surge protection but also on potential destruction & losses. Therefore, let us first understand the sources of surges. Electrical transients and voltage surges can happen anywhere, at anytime and are totally unpredictable. They wreck havoc on electronics that are lifeblood of every business and institution.
Lightning is probably the most drastic source of surges and even lightning that strikes miles away can travel along power supply lines and damage your equipment. Although in Sri Lanka we don’t have accurate data, in Netherlands, a country smaller than Sri Lanka have recorded over 600,000 ground strikes in 1996 and this should give you an indication of how much lightning to expect.
In addition to Power lines, surges can travel through data cables and telephone lines with equal ease.
What makes it more destructive is that lightning need not directly coupled to a cable, what’s known as ‘indirect coupling’ can be equally damaging; e.g. Lightning struck yards away can cause a ‘potential difference’ which could induce a surge into your network damaging your equipment. Cables running parallel to structural steelworks could also act as lightning conductors and induce surges in cables.
Much more frequent than surges induced by lightning are the two man-made transient over-voltages;
Surges due to switching of electrical equipment and
Repetitive transients caused by electronic power controllers.
According to Mr. George McDowell of ERA Technologies of England, any reactive component associated with the switched circuit, notably transformers and chokes can produce substantial surges as the stored energy is discharged in to the system and the more efficient the switching operation, the worse the effect because of the rapid rate of change.
Even florescent lighting can produce transients as high as 10kV (by 2.4m Fluorescent fittings). Centralized switching of fluorescents is even more likely to produce harmful transients. Chopping of the supply waveform causes repetitive transients in electronic controllers. Spot welding equipment, dimmer switches, controllers for portable power tools are notorious in this respect whilst and photocopiers, pumps, thyristor controlled motors, elevators are other well known contributors.
To make matters worse, microprocessors, circuits and components have become remarkably small and complex in recent times making them even more vulnerable to effect of surges and spikes.
PRINCIPLES OF PROTECTION
According to world-renowned French expert P.G.Laurent “Lightning possesses millions of Volts capable of shattering obstacles in its way, but flows meekly (if one handles it professionally) through small conductors…” But it would be disastrous if the job is not handled properly by a specialist using proper equipment and protectors.
Although, absolute (100%) protection is not attainable, cost-effective protection can be designed to suite the needs of the organization or the individual.
The more comprehensive the Protection System, the better the protection cover you would get but of course higher the initial cost. Therefore, a middle ground is recommended depending on your risk factor and your decision should take in to account the cost of protectors compared to the cost of potential damage (include costs of re-construction of data and potential loss of business as well as physical ‘damage’) and your budget.
If you have an expensive installation with high value or irreplaceable data where your risk factor is high, you are well advised to hire a company specializing in power protection systems to design and install protection to suit your needs.
However, if you are a user with just a few computers or electronics, your preference may be for a straight forward economical easy to fix protectors.
CIL is offering just that; a low cost simple to fix Surge Protector called ISP. Conceptualized and designed in the United Kingdom, state of the art technology has been used in the development and production of ISP. Advantages of ISP are;
- Unlike protectors inside your equipment, this will give you the status of the protector and can be replaced immediately on your own without specialist technicians,
- It has a thermal overload protection as standard that reduces the risk of electric shock or fire during sustained over-voltage,
- Automatic reset after each transient surge,
- It comes with power on indication light and an audible alarm in case of a severe surge protector will sacrifice it self to save the protected equipment,
- Minimum let through voltage
- These protectors are tested against IEEE C62.41 Cat.B2 or B3 (test wave 8/20us) and comply with BS 6651:1992appendix C, UL 1449 and with IT standard EN 60950.
Clarion International Ltd. has teamed up with three world leaders to bring you protection most suited to you. Citel & Franklin-France of FRANCE and IDC of BRITAIN, each of whom are specialists and leaders in their own field.
If you want to learn more about Surge Protection or have your equipment or the buildings protected, please send your email address to us at clarion@eureka.lk
Most standards, such as British Standards Code of Practice recommends three levels of protection;
On the supply side of the incoming power distribution board (Primary protection)
The mains distribution system (Secondary protection)
The load side of the socket outlet (Fine protection)
Only products with HIGH SPECIFICATIONS should be used and you should ask for detailed specs if they are not provided,
Serious consideration should be given to the location of protectors,
Installation material & methods should be to an international standard such as BS,
Particular attention should be paid to the earthing system.
After each lightning season, each component must be properly checked and replaced if necessary.
MISCONCEPTIONS
Finally common misconceptions are given below;
UPSs (Uninterruptible Power Systems) will protect sensitive equipment against surges-
UPS & stabilizers serve totally different purposes, though expensive UPSs provide certain levels of internal surge protection (In fact, APC, a large manufacturer of UPSs specify installation of their UPSs as well as Surge Protectors). Expecting UPSs & stabilizers to do the job of Surge Protectors is like expecting an expensive sports car to carry tons of loads. As surges pass through these internal protectors, they will degrade and fail and then the system is left totally unprotected.
Even a simple repair of a UPS will be much more costly than a simple replacement of a external full spec. Surge protector.
Underground cables require no protection – Less vulnerable to direct lightning but a nearby strike can cause a rise in earth potential which can easily induce a surge that can damage your network.
I have been using my equipment for 18 months nothing happened, so I am OK – Like UPSs, even other modern equipment with circuits are installed with some protection which protects against surges for a period but it gets degraded as it takes on even small surges and eventually fail and the equipment is left unprotected. What was said about UPSs applies here as well.
Clarion International helps you Reduce Computer Repair Costs by up to 75 %
This is according to a report published by International Copper Association in London,“75% of all computer failures are caused by power quality problems”. This means that 75% of computer failures are not due to ‘hardware problems’ and as such can be prevented by improving power quality.
Electricity board generates quality power at power stations but all sorts of interference’s along the distribution lines degrade and contaminate the power quality.
Whilst harmonic distortions, voltage variations, high frequency disturbances, voltage black outs are all power quality problems, transient voltage surges are the most disastrous type that could be prevented economically. This paper is concerned with reducing damages due to voltage surges commonly known as spikes.
Electrical & electronic equipment are designed to operate on clean power.
‘Contaminated power’ damages equipment and very often components are subjected to degradation resulting in premature-ageing i.e. reduced life span. Preventing these failures not only saves repair costs, it could also double the life span of equipment.
Cost of damages caused by surges is many times greater than you’d imagined. Consider the costs of the following; cost of the repair, production loses, idling staff, recreation of lost data, delays in getting spares repairs, manpower to attend to the above loses, loss of customer good will due to delays and even more importantly replacement costs or reduced life-span of equipment. Most of these costs could be saved.
Clarion International Ltd, Sri Lanka’s leader in Energy Management Systems has provided energy solutions and protection systems for over 17 years to over 500 leading companies including Unilever, US Embassy, British Embassy, Hayleys, Merc Bank, NDB Bank, Kandalama Hotel, Smart Shirts, Ansel Lanka, Stretchline, Sampath Bank, Aitken Spence, Ceylon Cold Stores, Plantation Companies and hundreds of other prestigious Organizations.
They are now offering a very economical and simple to fix British Surge Protector to the computer users in Sri Lanka to protect your equipment. But, first some details of the problem.
There is a remarkable lack of knowledge not only on protection but also on potential destruction & losses. More often than not, most suppliers are in the dark. Therefore, if you want to save on repair costs, you should understand the sources of surges. Electrical transients and voltage surges can happen anywhere, at anytime and are totally unpredictable. They wreck havoc on electronics that are lifeblood of every business and institution.
Lightning is probably the most drastic source. Surges induced by lightning that strikes miles away can travel along power supply lines, data cables and telephone lines to damage your equipment. Netherlands, a country smaller than Sri Lanka have recorded over 600,000 ground strikes in 1996 and this should give you an indication of how big the problem is. Lightning need not be directly coupled to a cable, ‘indirect coupling’ can be equally damaging; e.g. Lightning struck to ground many yards away can cause a ‘potential difference’ inducing a surge into your network and damage your equipment.
Man-made transient over-voltages (i.e.surges due to switching of electrical equipment and repetitive transients caused by electronic power controller) are called Switching Surges. These are even more frequent than surges induced by lightning and are equally damaging. Even a 2.4m florescent light can produce transients as high as 10 kV. Electronic controllers, Spot welding equipment, dimmer switches, and portable power tools are notorious for inducing surges whilst photocopiers, pumps, thyristor controlled motors, elevators are other well-known contributors. Switching of any of them can induce surges large enough to damage computers.
According to a world-renowned French expert P.G.Laurent “Lightning possesses millions of Volts capable of shattering obstacles in its way, but flows meekly (if one handles it professionally) through small conductors…” But it would be disastrous if the job is not handled properly by a specialist using proper equipment and protectors.
Although absolute protection is not attainable, cost-effective protection can be designed to suite the needs of any organisation or individual. The more comprehensive the Protection System, the better the protection cover you would get but of course higher the initial cost. Therefore, a middle ground is recommended depending on your risk factor. Your decision should take in to account the cost of protectors compared to the cost of potential including cost of recreation of data etc. damage and your budget.
If you have an expensive installation with high value or irreplaceable data where your risk factor is high, you are well advised to hire a company specializing in power protection systems to design and install a system to suit your needs.
However, if you are a user with just a few computers or electronics, you may prefer a straight forward economical easy to fix protectors. Clarion International Ltd is offering just that; a low cost simple to fix Inline Surge Protector called ISP. Conceptualized and designed in the United Kingdom, state of the art technology has been used in the development of ISP. Advantages of ISP are;
- Low cost of protector and zero installation cost,
- Unlike protectors inside your equipment, ISP will give you the protection status and can be replaced immediately on your own without specialist technicians,
- It has a thermal overload protection as standard that reduces the risk of electric shock or fire during sustained over-voltage,
- Automatic reset after each transient surge,
- It comes with power on indication light and an audible alarm (in case of a severe surge, protector will sacrifice it self to save the protected equipment),
- Minimum let through voltage,
- These protectors are tested against IEEE C62.41 Cat.B2 or B3 (test wave 8/20us) and comply with BS 6651:1992appendix C, UL 1449 and with IT standard EN 60950.
As the Sole Representative for three world leaders Citel of FRANCE, Franklin-France of FRANCE and IDC of BRITAIN, our range of products and knowledge are the best in the world. This coupled with our 17 year specialist experience serving several hundred leading companies have equipped our staff with expertise unmatched in Sri Lanka to give you a cost effective solution to your protection needs.
If you want to learn more about Surge Protection or have your equipment or the buildings protected, please send your email address to us at clarion@eureka.lk
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