k0ua
Epic Contributor
Well he knows the error of his ways now with 3 of us telling him the same thing
James K0UA
James K0UA
Welder shouldn't make any more spikes on the lines than the dryer or fridge turning on and off. But if you want to you could add a hole house surge supressor to the panel when you add the breaker.
joshuabardwell said:Dan,
My understanding is that whole-house suppressors (such as the kind that attach behind the meter) protect the house from surges coming in from the outside. I don't see how they would protect something inside the house from something else inside the house that was making a surge.
I think I see what y'all are getting at. The surge suppressor is not directional. Whenever voltage rises above the threshold, it opens and shunts to ground. The only potential for interference between devices inside the house is if they were on the same breaker, and even then, there would be a relatively short window (like, some fraction of the speed of light times the length of the wire) until the voltage reached the suppressor and was shunted. In the case of a welder, which is essentially always going to be on an isolated breaker from the rest of the house, a whole-house surge suppressor will always protect the house, because nothing else is going to be on the circuit with the breaker.
Thats pretty much it, except the suppressor does not Open and then shunt to ground, it is across the line at all times and just clamps when the voltage spike rises above its clamp voltage.
joshuabardwell said:Hm. I guess I was thinking of it being like a lightning arrestor in an antenna system.
Maske sure you have #6 cable to supply the 50 Amps...stuff is like battery cables.