On Mon, 4 May 2009 14:35:22 -0700 (PDT), westom
wrote:

On May 3, 4:23 pm, Caesar Romano wrote:
If twosurgeprotectorsare connected in series, is the amount of
surgeprotectionavailable at the down-stream protector approximately
equal to the sum of the two individual protections??

You assumed protectors somehow stop or absorb surges. They don't.
Do you really think that protector will stop what three miles of sky
could not?.

A surge first creates a path from cloud to earthborne charges. Then
surge current - electricity -flows simultaneously and equally through
everything in that path. Effective protectors don't try to stop or
absorb that energy. One dffective protector connects a surge to earth
- as the NIST says:
You cannot really suppress a surge altogether, nor
"arrest" it. What these protective devices do is
neither suppress nor arrest a surge, but simply
divert it to ground, where it can do no harm.

Where does surge energy get harmlessly absorbed? In earth. A
protector is only a connecting device to protection - earth.
Protector and protection are two separate items. A protector located
too far from protection (earth ground) may divert that surge
destructively in other paths inside a building.

E Z Peaces describes a 'whole house' protector. But also describes
a protector apparently with insufficient earthing. One 'whole house'
protector means the surge does not even enter the building; need not
seek earth ground through a computer or other appliances. Again,
first the path from cloud to earth is created. In his case, that
connection to earth was through some appliances - destructively.

A surge that does not enter the building does not seek earth - which
is what every telco everywhere in the world does. Effective earthing
making the original question - connecting protectors in series -
irrelevant. Your telco connected to overhead wires all over town may
suffer 100 surges during each thunderstorm. How often how has your
town been without phone service for four days while they replace their
computer? Telcos don't daiychain protectors. Telcos locate every
protector where each wire enters the building - and making the
shortest possible connection to earth.

Where does surge energy get dissipated harmlessly? In earth.

What a protector connects surges to - where surge energy gets
absorbed - is surge protection - earth ground. Every wire inside
every incoming utility cable connects short (ie 'less than 10 feet')
to earth either using wire (ie cable TV, satellite dish) or via a
'whole house' protector (AC electric, telephone).

Not just any earth ground. All must make a short connection to the
same earth ground electrode.

A protector is only as effective as its earth ground. Where do your
daisy chained (in series)protectors make that "low impedance"
connection to earth? Why do commercial broadcast stations and ham
radio operators routinely suffer direct lightning strikes and never
have damage? Why do telcos not use your plug-in protectors? They
need protection. Protectors connect as short as possible to earth so
that surges need not enter a building. Never damage that telco
switching computer. Nobody will stop or absorb what three miles of
sky could not.

bud will now reply with nasty and insulting comments because he is
paid to do so.

Anybody who follows Westom's advice or believes his idiocy is a prime
candidate for the Darwin Awards. Westom is a long time usenet kook who
likes to sprinkle just enough truth in his nonsense to fool people
into doing things that could kill them.

He has changed his usenet identity once again to try and escape from
his past. He used to post as w_tom.