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Power surges are generally considered to be the most destructive of the four types of electrical power disturbances. Power surges are spikes in voltage.
They are very brief, usually lasting millionths of a second. Power surges can vary in duration and magnitude, varying from a few hundred volts to several thousand volts. No matter where you live, your home experiences power surges. How Does a Power Surge Cause Damage? In the United States, most homes use electrical power in the form of 120-volt, 60 Hz, single phase, alternating current. However, the voltage is not delivered at constant 120-volts. With alternating current the voltage rises and falls in a predetermined rhythm. The voltage oscillates from 0 to a peak voltage of 169 volts. Most appliances and electrical devices in your home used in the United States are designed to be powered by this form of generated electricity. During a power surge, the voltage exceeds the peak voltage of 169 volts.
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Smaller, repeated power surges may slowly damage your electronic equipment. Your computer or stereo may continue to function after small surges occur until the integrity of the electronic components finally erode and your satellite system, cordless phone, or answering machine mysteriously stops working. Repeated, small power surges shorten the life of appliances and electronics. When you put together a computer system, one piece of standard equipment you'll probably buy is a surge protector. Most designs serve one immediately obvious function -- they let you plug multiple components into one power outlet. With all of the different components that make up a computer system, this is definitely a useful device. But the other function of a surge protector power strip -- protecting the electronics in your computer from surges in power -- is far more important. In this article, we'll look at surge protectors, also called surge suppressors, to find out what they do, when you need them, and how well they work. We'll also find out what levels of protection are available and see why you might not have all the protection you need, even if you do use a quality surge protector. The main job of a surge protector system is to protect electronic devices from "surges." So if you're wondering what a surge protector does, the first question is, "What are surges?" And then, "Why do electronics need to be protected from them?" A power surge, or transient voltage, is an increase in voltage significantly above the designated level in a flow of electricity. In normal household and office wiring in the United States, the standard voltage is 120 volts. If the voltage rises above 120 volts, there is a problem, and a surge protector helps to prevent that problem from destroying your computer.
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When the increase lasts three nanoseconds (billionths of a second) or more, it's called a surge.
When it only lasts for one or two nanoseconds, it's called a spike. If the surge or spike is high enough, it can inflict some heavy damage on a
machine. The effect is very similar to applying too much water pressure to a hose. If there is too much water pressure, a hose will burst. Approximately the same thing happens when too much electrical pressure runs through a wire -- the wire "bursts." Actually, it heats up like the filament in a light bulb and burns, but it's the same idea. Even if increased voltage doesn't immediately break your machine, it may put extra strain on the components, wearing them down over time. In the next section, we'll look at what surge protectors do to prevent this from happening.
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As you can see a TVSS device is important to a mission critical electrical system and its benefits are great. A TVSS is a low cost protection device that will help to reduce downtime or production losses. It helps to extend lighting lamp and ballast life expectancy. The TVSS will help in reducing motor stress and overheating and is a constant protection of data processing and digital equipment. If your mission critical facility does not already have TVSS devices installed we highly recommend it. If you are not sure if your system has them installed we suggest asking your engineer or electrician to verify. It is a small price for additional peace of mind. A transient voltage suppressor or TVS is a general classification of an array of devices that are designed to react to sudden or momentary overvoltage conditions. One such common device used for this purpose is known as the transient voltage suppression diode that is simply a Zener diode designed to protect electronics device against over voltages. Another design alternative applies a family of products that are known as metaloxide varistors (MOV) that protect electronic circuits and electrical equipment. The characteristic of a TVS requires that it respond to overvoltage faster than other common overvoltage protection components such as varistors or gas discharge tubes. This makes TVS devices or components useful for protection against very fast and often damaging voltage spikes. These fast overvoltage spikes are present on all distribution networks and can be caused by either internal or external events, such as lightning or motor arcing. Applications of transient voltage suppression diodes are used for unidirectional or bidirectional electrostatic discharge protection of transmission or data lines in electronic circuits. MOV based TVSs are utilized to protect home electronics, distribution systems and may accommodate industrial level power distribution disturbances saving downtime and damage to equipment. The level of energy in a transient overvoltage can be equated to energy measured in joules or related to electric current when devices are rated for various applications. These bursts of overvoltage can be measured with specialized electronic meters that can show power disturbances of thousands of volts amplitude that last for a few microseconds or less.
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Fig.3 STMicroelectronics Transit devices. These devices are 1.5KE series, able to handle 1.5 kW of peak power for a short period. A transient-voltage-suppression (TVS) diode is an electronic component used to protect sensitive electronics from voltage spikes induced on connected wires.[1] The device operates by shunting excess current when the induced voltage exceeds the avalanche breakdown potential. It is a clamping device, suppressing all overvoltage above its breakdown voltage. Like all clamping devices, it automatically resets when the overvoltage goes away, but absorbs much more of the transient energy internally than a similarly rated crowbar device.
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A transient-voltage-suppression diode may be either unidirectional or bidirectional. A unidirectional device operates as a rectifier in the forward direction like any other avalanche diode, but is made and tested to handle very large peak currents. The popular 41.5KE series allows 1500 W of peak power, for a short time. A bidirectional transient-voltage-suppression diode can be represented by two mutually opposing avalanche diodes in series with one another and connected in parallel with the circuit to be protected. While this representation is schematically accurate, physically the devices are now manufactured as a single component. A transient-voltage-suppression diode can respond to over-voltages faster than other common over-voltage protection components such as varistors or gas discharge tubes. The actual clamping occurs in roughly one picosecond, but in a practical circuit the inductance of the wires leading to the device imposes a higher limit. This makes transient-voltage-suppression diodes useful for protection against very fast and often damaging voltage transients. These fast over-voltage transients are present on all distribution networks and can be caused by either internal or external events, such as lightning or motor arcing. Transient-voltage suppressors will fail if they are subjected to voltages or conditions beyond those that the particular product was designed to accommodate. There are three key modes in which the TVS will fail: short, open, and degraded device.
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CHAPTER-3
SURGE PROTECTION DEVICES (SPDs)
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The protective components described in part 3 can be combined to formsurge protection devices (SPDs) suitable for a variety of applications. Thispublication is basically concerned with the protection of electronicequipment and communications equipment so the detailed use of lightning conductors to protect buildings and other structures is not discussed. The relevant UK code of practice, BS6651:1999, is available from the British Standards Institute and includes a wealth of information and recommendations on the design and installation of protective systems for buildings, together with detail on SPDs in Appendix C. This part describes several Telemetric ranges of SPDs making use of the components described in part 3 in multi-stage hybrid circuits or other networks developed for various applications through the years. See part 5 for detailed application advice.
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FIG.7 I-VCURVE FOR A THYRISTOR BIASED ANODE TO CATHODE Under a negative Anode to Cathode voltage there is no regenerative feature and the I-V curve looks like a reverse bias diode breakdown. The protection properties of a simple Thyristor are very asymmetric. To provide symmetrical crowbar behavior it is necessary to use two anti parallelThyristors. This can be done with a pair of discrete Thyristors, as, or it can be done with an integrated structure on a single piece of silicon including 5 doping levels, as illustrated in Figure 18b. The integrated device is usually called a Thyristor Surge Protection Device (TSPD) and its I-V characteristic is shown in figure. Most TSPDs are of the symmetrical behavior but there are other options.
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CONCLUSION:From the above Information we can conclude that if we can Protect Our electrical Instruments from Electrical Power Surges and transients, we can save ourElectrical equipment and as well as money. This saving is depends on the following parameters:
Power surges are generally considered to be the most destructive of the four types of electrical power disturbances. Power surges are spikes in voltage. so we can save our equipments.
Transient surges are defined as momentary bursts of energy that are induced upon power, data, or communication lines.
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References
www.wikipedia.com www.rosemount.com www.emersonelectric.com www.onsemi.com
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