Speedskater said:
Bill Whitlock , retired from Jensen Transformer goes into detail in his seminar paper:
http://centralindianaaes.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/indy-aes-2012-seminar-w-notes-v1-0.pdf
Sorry, the pages on
surge suppression start at panel #210
The section on 'grounds' and 'Earth' starts at panel #17
I did a system, starting in 2006, which required that most of the equipment be moved to the basement, along with some new gear. I was installing the rack and needed power for everything to be nearby, to avoid using any circuits that were already in this house, which was originally built in 1905 and had various "upgrades and updates". I asked for a separate wire for bonding the rack to the panel and Sparky said "When I do systems, I never do that" to which I replied, "I don't give a rat's ass what you do in your systems- they don't have computer-based music servers, equipment connected to systems on other floors & rooms and aren't as expensive as this equipment. If you don't do what I need, you won't get the trouble calls, I will.". This is the place where I heard the loud snap sound in the basement equipment room when lightning struck outside- NOTHING has been lost to surges, but a subsequent electrical job caused noise because they ran two heavy direct burial cables within 6" and parallel to my AV cabling when they abandoned the feeds from the pole, to bury everything. If it had been in conduit, I doubt the noise would have been audible, but.....
Metal equipment racks are supposed to be grounded, as per the code link I provided earlier, but Sparky didn't know that.
Bill's a cool guy- had a couple of chances to talk and it was very informative.