Understanding Dirty Power and Why Surge Protection Matters
Most people assume their electrical power is clean, stable and consistent. In reality, every home, office and industrial facility experiences thousands of tiny electrical disturbances every day. These disturbances are known as voltage transients, and together they create what is often called dirty power. This blog explains what dirty power is, why surge suppression has failed and the difference a robust all solid state arrester provides that is essential in eliminating current transients created by our manipulation to the voltage and the impact on over consuming energy or extra equipment stress.
What Is Dirty Electric Power?
Dirty electric power refers to unwanted electrical noise and disturbances travelling through your power system. One of the biggest contributors to dirty power is voltage manipulation that generates current surging. These are sudden, short bursts of excess current that appear when something switches on or off in your electrical system. These current surges are also created the whole time electronics are on and operating due to the harmonic effect. Lightning can also create severe transients, but most occur from everyday equipment operation.
On a typical 120 volt residential line:
- Lightning related transients can spike as high as 6000 volts
- Load switching & Harmonic effect create constant moderate current surges
These rapid current surges appear for only a fraction of a second, but they are powerful enough to stress wiring, damage electronics and disrupt the smooth flow of electricity. They show up everywhere, although at different frequencies depending on the environment.
Common transient rates include:
- Up to 900 transients per hour in a home
- Up to 9000 transients per hour in a busy office
- Up to 60,000 transients per hour in a small factory
- Up to 180,000 transients per hour in a processing plant
Every one of these events contributes to electrical pollution. Over time, this constant noise quietly wears down motors, transformers, lighting systems and sensitive electronics.
Why Surge Arresting Should Be a Priority & Obsoletes Suppression
Surge suppression is one of the most widely used solution over the decades but has been over promised and under delivered in results. The reason for this is these devices not only work against ohms law (suppression) but require a voltage surge to a certain degree before protection is activated. The majority of surge events today are current surges created by a voltage drop or harmonic manipulation to the voltage wave form, neither of which are a voltage surge that will activate protection. Having a device that will arrest these damaging current surges without a voltage surge present is an effective and affordable way to improve power quality. An properly configured all-solid-state arrester will remove the majority of harmful current surges created by the voltage manipulation.
By addressing transient protection first, you remove the source of many hidden electrical problems. Nothing else can replace this function. Good current surge arresting prevents issues that would otherwise require expensive repairs, system downtime or additional corrective equipment later on.
If your goal is to protect your facility and provide the right electrical environment to provide your equipment the chance to last it’s intended life cycle, surge arresting should be at the top of the list. It reduces risk, lowers maintenance costs and protects your investment.
How Eliminating Transients Reduces Energy Usage
Most high energy consuming devices are driven by magnetic mass. Motors are essentially large electromagnets. Transformers, which operate in a similar way, power fluorescent lighting and many other systems. These devices rely on stable, predictable electrical fields.
Transients interfere with these magnetic fields and create what is known as the eddy current effect. Eddy currents reduce system efficiency and generate excess heat. When transients hit a motor or transformer, they cause:
- Voltage fluctuations
- Unnecessary current draw
- Sudden changes in resistance
- Additional heat buildup
Equipment that runs hotter operates less efficiently and consumes more energy. It also wears out faster. When transients are removed from the system, motors and transformers run cooler and smoother. Simply put:
Eliminated transients = Reduced heat
Reduced heat = Lower energy use & expected equipment life.
Final Thoughts
Dirty power is a hidden problem that affects every electrical system to some degree. Surge suppression was designed for the big event (limited) and not geared towards these constant current surges generated by the way we manipulate our power today. Current surge transient elimination provide an immediate improvement in reliability, performance and energy efficiency. For facilities of all sizes, investing in high quality power protection is one of the smartest ways to protect equipment and reduce long term costs.
This write up is in part with minor enhancements generated from 28 years of market experience is based off an original article by The University of Waterloo which can be seen here.
