Electric Surge Protectors.

[Lawngevity]

Hi guys,

I'm not sure if we have any electricians here?

My wife has a side business making crafts using a commerical grade laser. She had a Glowforge for several years but she recently upgraded. The new laser is very expensive ($14k) and I'm looking to have a tiered surge protection system installed. The Type 1 is the kind that gets installed at the meter. The Type 2 is installed at the electrical breaker panel.

The question is, does the electrician need to notify the utility company when removing the meter and installing the surge protection device on the meter pan?

Based on a video I watched, the installation takes just under three minutes. However, from what I've read, the electric company gets a notification when the meter has been removed.

I appreciate any and all feedback and advice.

Thanks
Mark

 

[85Hokie]

Mark,

I am not an electrician, but I do teach electrical wiring in the class/shop.

" The question is, does the electrician need to notify the utility company when removing the meter and installing the surge protection device on the meter pan? "

Most meters now have device in them that "tells" the company that the service has been interrupted as you mentioned.

AS for installing something at the meter - not sure how the electric company will allow someone to handle that. THEY own the box and the meter, you own the wire via box to breaker box. SO you are installing something post meter?

Does she need or want a UPS? they filter and control surges too - I have used them for years, until the batteries no longer hold a charge.

 

[chim]

In our area you'd best have the power company involved if you need to pull the meter. 40 years ago things were different, and we often popped meters to do work on the load side of the meter. The power company never knew, and would simply put a new meter seal on when the meter reader came around the next time.

 

[bearbait]

Here in Canada no one even the electrician is allowed to remove the meter, you have to make an appointment with the power company to come out and remove it at a charge to you and after the work is done you have to have them come back and reinstall it at another charge to you. I only know this because when we moved into our new place here we had a generlink installed on the meter before we moved in which we were told were the new greatest thing since a peanut butter and jam sandwich which worked great after a hurricane blew through however with the next outage it was a no go and only then we found out they were having a lot of trouble with these $1800 dollar pieces of crap, sorry I have a tendency to ramble on. We now have a generator panel and another thing I found out the hard way is you should always turn off every breaker before you connect your generator and after letting it run for a short time turn on one breaker at a time. Well me being a dumb ass and having company at the time, well I didn't do that and put the full load on at one time but I was lucky enough to only cook 3 surge protectors, could have been much worse if we didn't have them to take the hit. Bottom line is learn from my mistakes and good luck and if this is no use to anyone, sorry about rambling on

 

[RBsingl]

In my area, AMEREN has anti tamper devices to indicate removal of their smart meter. So they will get a notice of interruption and there will be a damaged anti-tamper device.

Just call the utility company since they are the definitive voice.

Shortly after I bought my house out here in the country, a nearby lightning strike took out multiple items including the deep well pump. Afterward, I installed mil spec surge protectors in the main shutoff just after the meter along with separate ones at the panels in the house, barn, and two outbuildings. They are three stage with MOV, gas discharge, and a RFI bypass network. The only downside is after installation there is a little flickering with nearby lightning strikes since they are very sensitive with fast peak clipping on small transients. In the ensuing 30 years I have had zero damage to electronics.

Unfortunately the company was a small family operation that made these and they went out of business about 10 years ago. One of the interesting things was that when I was using my prior 7.5 KW portable generator during outages, the metal cased surge boxes would "sing" along with the generator indicating it was producing fairly dirty output. They are completely silent when my current 40 KW diesel powered standby genset is running.

Rodger

 

[GeoHorn]

The power company owns the meter and the customer owns everything “downstream” of the meter.

There is no need to disconnect or “pull” the meter. Simply open the main service entrance breakers and install the surge device downstream of those breakers. Turn ‘em back “on” when finished.

 

[bearbait]

The power company owns the meter and the customer owns everything “downstream” of the meter.

There is no need to disconnect or “pull” the meter. Simply open the main service entrance breakers and install the surge device downstream of those breakers. Turn ‘em back “on” when finished.

Doesn't seem tp be that easy here but I wish

 

[Pawnee]

Why not get one that just protects the Laser cutter.
Here is one.
More joules is always better.

 

[CGMKCM]

We have the smart meters that are supposed to notify power company when meter is pulled. I hired an electrician to replace my main panel that had meter base included. I was insalling a new panel with generator inter lock. Electrician snipped tamper tag, pulled meter and 1 hour later re-installed meter. Power company never said a word. YRMV

 

[The Evil Twin]

A lot will depend on your power provider. Here, a licensed electrician can do it with prior notification given to the utility company. You'll have to check with them. It is their meter. Not yours.
Cost me $700 when I installed the generator. I could do everything else EXCEPT remove the meter head. I'm a class A master fitter with licenses in 3 states. Certified for 4160 volt starters ans VFDs.... can't remove a silly little 240v meter head.

 

[DustyRusty]

The land across from me was being logged, and the logging company needed to get under the low-hanging service to my neighbor's home. Their electrician came in with a bucket truck cut the live wires to the home and relocated them higher on the building. The power company was never notified, and in the past 10 years since they did that, no one at the power company is any the wiser.

 

[mikester]

I'd strongly recommend a large UPS for your sensitive and expensive equipment.

There are whole home surge suppression systems that are installed at your electrical panel. I wouldn't go at it through the meter because it is unserviceable by homeowners that way.

As an added bonus your homeowners insurance policy might give you a discount for whole home surge suppression. Mine does. Learned about it after a lightning strike.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

HD and others sell 'whole home, panel mounted surge protectors. Simply install in the spare 2 pole (240V) slot, connect to neutral and ground..no $$ electrician needed. About $150-$200. If you have an outlet real close to the panel,plug in a 'surge protecting' unit there.
While you're 'upgrading', add another ground from the panel and put new rod 6-10' away from the original one.
If you're really serious , add lightning rods,cables, to your roof and properly ground them.

 

[Yooper]

Contact the laser company and ask if they have surge protection built in. You may be going through a lot of work for nothing

 

[Elliott in GA]

HD and others sell 'whole home, panel mounted surge protectors. Simply install in the spare 2 pole (240V) slot, connect to neutral and ground..no $$ electrician needed. About $150-$200. If you have an outlet real close to the panel,plug in a 'surge protecting' unit there.
While you're 'upgrading', add another ground from the panel and put new rod 6-10' away from the original one.
If you're really serious , add lightning rods,cables, to your roof and properly ground them.

If you are really, really serious, you install this from Heary Brothers:

https://www.lightningpreventor.com/downloads/LPA-Preventor-Brochure-2023.pdf

I had these installed at remote radio sites in the Andes mountains with gel pits (needed for the ground). We went from yearly catastrophic damage to no damage, and other government sites outside the protection zone continued to suffer damage. All of the sites were solar powered.

 

[sagor]

I have a HD whole house surge protector in my main panel. I got a lightning hit (I believe it was on solar panel grounding wire) in 2017 and everything that was plugged into AC outlets survived. What did not was anything that was wired by Ethernet cables. Seems the EMP got into that wiring and took out several things that were wired direct to the home network. Lesson learned, most things are wifi now, and the few Ethernet wired devices usually get unplugged when storms arrive. Hard to get good Gigabit lightning protectors, and grounding them is awkward…

 

[RBsingl]

I have a HD whole house surge protector in my main panel. I got a lightning hit (I believe it was on solar panel grounding wire) in 2017 and everything that was plugged into AC outlets survived. What did not was anything that was wired by Ethernet cables. Seems the EMP got into that wiring and took out several things that were wired direct to the home network. Lesson learned, most things are wifi now, and the few Ethernet wired devices usually get unplugged when storms arrive. Hard to get good Gigabit lightning protectors, and grounding them is awkward…

Great advice on WiFi! With the speed of WiFi, in a home setting a cabled network is rarely needed and it provides a high probability vector for damage both from external hits to the provider network and from induced surges in long cable runs within the home. Internet connection for a typical home should go to a router/WiFi setup so at worst you will lose an access point box or wifi equipped router.

When transferring photos, I connect my Canon 1 series cameras directly to the ethernet ports on my HP workstations but otherwise the only thing connected to one of its ethernet ports is a WiFi adapter.

Rodger