[Prowler]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

Need your help Prowler. In my home the power supply is like the below sequence

Electric Pole -> Changeover -> Bus Bar -> 2 lines to 2 meters ->Fuse after each meter-> MCB for each meter-> RCCB for each meter ->Supply to individual house.

Usually the utility - EB will not allow you to fit anything in their wooden board where they have fitted the meter and the still continuing Fuse carriers to protect their meters. Your mains switch, individual MCB for house circuits like lighting, heater, AC will sit next to the utility board.

So fit the SPD after the MCB.
BTW, tampering the wires feeding the meter may be construed as illegal with many Electricity Boards. At least this is the case with Madras EB.
So leave the EB wooden base board where the meter lives, well alone.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Usually the utility - EB will not allow you to fit anything in their wooden board where they have fitted the meter and the still continuing Fuse carriers to protect their meters. Your mains switch, individual MCB for house circuits like lighting, heater, AC will sit next to the utility board.

So fit the SPD after the MCB.
BTW, tampering the wires feeding the meter may be construed as illegal with many Electricity Boards. At least this is the case with Madras EB.
So leave the EB wooden base board where the meter lives, well alone.

Well , in my case , there is no space in the distribution board inside in house which houses MCB's and RCCB's for different parts of the house. So i have to fit this in the meter box itself which is pretty spacious. This is not an issue with the electricity board in Bangalore as long as we are doing modification after the electricity meter. So, in this case, if i understand correctly, i need to put the 3Ph SPD in series after the MCB and before the RCCB , right?

Meter -> Fuse -> 4pole MCB -> 3 Pole SPD -> 4 Pole RCCB -> To individual house distribution box

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by deemash

Electrician says the surge came in via the DTH. Not sure to believe him or not. He showed me some burnt wire or cable that runs down from Dish to the TV.

The attached image is the board that I saw in my home. After EB on the left there is a wire running to earth.

Originally Posted by rdst_1

......
I don't know why our policies still dictate the use of fuses when we are using MCBs which is just a modern fuse and was designed to replace a fuse.

1. The dish is at the top of the house and it is the natural point for lightning to seek a path to the earth. So it is highly possible that the surge did travel through the DTH. To prevent further strikes, install a "lightning Rod" - a steel rod, pointed at the tip, that projects about 500mm above the dish. It should be anchored in the wall as near the dish as possible and connected to the earth preferably using a copper strip (20mm x 2mm is standard). The earth is ideally a plate in a pit dug at least 1 meter into the soil. The plate is usually surrounded by charcoal-salt mixture to increase conductivity.

2.Fuses are still the most optimum breakers for low voltage applications. The are fool proof and can be versatile in their current ratings. Their only draw back is that fuses are slow devices as they blow due to thermal overload, but that is fine to prevent the meters from burning.

[deemash]

Originally Posted by Aroy

1. The dish is at the top of the house and it is the natural point for lightning to seek a path to the earth. So it is highly possible that the surge did travel through the DTH. To prevent further strikes......

Thanks, Aroy. I went to the terrace and checked the dish out. Confirmed that the lightning surge came thru the Dish. Could see a black mark running down from the dish and it created a hole in my terrace.

Unfortunate thing is that my Sony 49" Android 4k 1.5 year old TVs mother board is gone. The auth sony guy says it will cost 22k and after replacing mother board only he can tell if further damages are there. I have a Sony home theater for which I am yet to check the impact.
Total loss from this damage so far is ~ 1L giving my sleepless nights. Should I repair the TV or go for a new one? Please advise guys.

I checked the grounding of dish with few guys. Nobody in our area has done this grounding. We have a high rise building of 13 floors which is some 200m away from my home. This building has lightning arrestor and should provide coverage for around 500m radius. However, we have earthing done from the mains. So run copper wire from the dish and connect to the same earthing rod should be OK?

God knows why the lightning chose my Dish to celebrate Diwali

[Aroy]

Connecting lightning arrester to the mains ground will fry the wiring.

Better just Install the Lightning arrester rod projecting about 1 meter above the dish. Secure it firmly to the parapet wall. If you have metal water piping connect the arrester to the nearest water pipe. The surge will dissipate through the water line. Any way if lightning strikes again it will be diverted to the rod away from the dish.

High voltage surge fries a lot of things, and I am vary of conditional approach to repairs. If you know any repairman request him to open up your devices and see what has been blown. If it was a powerful surge it will leave a track of blown devices.

Anyway I am not very keen on major repairs to old electronics, as the residual value after repairs seldom recovers the repair costs.

[rdst_1]

How is the earthing rod connected to your building? You can run a separate copper wire from the lightning arrester ditectly to the earthing rod or the external connector box that is usually installed near the earth rod from where connections to the apartments must be provided.
Also you can buy a MOV based SPD for your DTH dish as well. There are multiple options available on Amazon like this -
VCE 2-PACK Cable TV In-Line Coaxial Surge Protector https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07525CLKR/..._CWBXDbXS8D7GF

These alone would not be able to handle a direct strike though.
One can also ground the dish directly to the ground rod just like everything else.

[Ithaca]

Originally Posted by deemash

Unfortunate thing is that my Sony 49" Android 4k 1.5 year old TVs mother board is gone. The auth sony guy says it will cost 22k and after replacing mother board only he can tell if further damages are there. I have a Sony home theater for which I am yet to check the impact.
Total loss from this damage so far is ~ 1L giving my sleepless nights. Should I repair the TV or go for a new one? Please advise guys.

Sorry to hear about the damage to your TV system.

This reply will only be with regarding your Sony TV.
Has the technician come home and assessed the damage to the TV or was it over a phone call that he gave you an estimate.
I had an issue with my 3 year old out of warranty 55 inch Sony TV smart non 4K TV.
The technician came home to assess the problem and after his diagnosis mentioned that there are two parts that could be damaged.
1. T-Conn board
2. The panel.

The T-Conn board would cost me Rs 15,000+ and if after the problem persisted, then they would replace the panel which would cost Rs 45,000+.
You have mentioned that he will basically change the T-Conn board for 22k and if the problem is not solved then he will diagnosis the panel replacement. This will cost upwards of 50+ since it is a 4K TV.
In this case, you will have to evaluate whether spending so much on a 1.5 year old TV is worth.
Please ask him to get an estimate of the price of the Panel for your TV.

If you do go ahead with the repairs, I would suggest you visit that service center and speak to the boss and clarify that if he is going to replace a part that costs Rs 22k and the problem does not get resolved and he has to replace the panel, then he must promise to take back the Rs 22k part he just replaced or else you will be paying Rs 22k for this part and an additional amount for a new panel which comes with its own inbuilt T-Conn board.
In my case they agreed or else it would have cost me Rs 15000 (T-Conn board) + Rs 45000 (new panel having its own T-Conn board) = Rs 60000 before taxes.

Hope the Home theatre survived the lightening strike.

[suzuki san]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Suzuki San, fit the SPD between the phase selector and the meter. The price of the SPD varies between the manufacturers and the models. The ones I showed cost a bit less than 2k. Schneider may cost more. Buy 3 phase/1 Neutral for normal 3 phase domestic supply. Anything around 20 kA surge current rating would suffice.

Hi Prowler,

Thanks for your valuable inputs. I will have to get hold of my electrician and explain this to him. Will PM you in future if I require more help - if that is O.K. with you?

Regards,
SS

[deemash]

Originally Posted by Ithaca

Hope the Home theatre survived the lightening strike.

Thank you, Ithaca. A technician visited our home and opened the TV set. He showed me the burnt motherboard. It costs 22k. After fixing new motherboard only they can check for panels and other things. I asked them to fix a backup motherboard and then check. But they said that is not possible.

I could also see some white spots on my panel. Guess some leds might have gone. I better buy a new TV rather than spending money on this. Going forward I will invest less in TV and buy a medium TV like Panasonic . I am little skeptical to go for VU and MI. VU days are going on in Flipkart and has mouth watering deals going on. But in most forums I see bad reviews of VU. Hence, want to play safe and start with Panasonic as they have priced competently.

As far as Home Theatre is concerned, the Blu Ray player board is also gone and I have given it for repair at Sony auth centre. Estimate is 5k.
I checked one of the speakers and they appear to work. Hope other speakers are not damaged. The technician said speakers won't be affected by lightning strike.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by suzuki san

Hi Prowler,

Thanks for your valuable inputs. I will have to get hold of my electrician and explain this to him. Will PM you in future if I require more help - if that is O.K. with you?

Regards,
SS

Absolutely San. Glad to be of help.

[BigBrad]

Few points worth noting from the manual of our 2018 model Hitachi 1 ton inverter AC:




V Guard stabiliser manual:

[ruzbehxyz]

Hi friends.

I would like to share my experience with Panasonic AC. We had joyfully bought a 1 ton 5 star Panasonic Inverter AC in 2014, which was the latest model at that time. Initial usage for the first year was just 4 hours a day. Then we started to use it at night also, approximately 8 hours per day.

After 3 years of usage, the blower motor went kaput and the flaps would not rotate up and down. We called the Panasonic technician and they said that your model is outdated and so no spare is available. Our argument was, that if there is no spare, then you must repair it. We will bear the cost. But they refused. Since the AC was running fine and the room was cooling as before, we ignored it and kept running the AC as before. Suddenly after about 6 months, the flaps started running on it's own which goes to show that there was a minor fault which could be repaired easily but was not done.

Exactly after 5 years of usage (compressor warranty is only 5 years), the AC suddenly stopped cooling. The indoor unit was working fine, outdoor unit would start then stop in a few seconds. We call a Panasonic technician. He said the PCB is kaput and they will take it for repair but it's unlikely that a repair will be successful. Next day they said both PCB's are dead. If both are dead then how come the indoor unit is working fine?
I called the owner of the service center and he said that since it's an Inverter AC, the PCB will have to be changed. After that they will check if the compressor is working or not. PCB costs 16,000. I purchased my AC for 38,000. Finally I gave up. During all this conversation, the technician was trying to sell me a used AC for 9,000 and that he would take away my old AC. How can I give away a AC which is only 5 years old. Its seems Panasonic knows that their ACs will last only 5 years and hence the warranty. I dont know about other Panasonic products, but I would never invest in a Panasonic AC or any other Panasonic product ever.
Please stay away from Panasonic AC.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

Hi friends.

.........

Exactly after 5 years of usage (compressor warranty is only 5 years), the AC suddenly stopped cooling. The indoor unit was working fine, outdoor unit would start then stop in a few seconds
.........

This is more of a compressor problem. It is overloading and then shutting off.

I suggest that you consult a neighbourhood AC mechanic. It may be as simple as low gas or the overload relay tripping.

If the compressor is fine, then there are a lot of service centres that repair PCB.

[Mortis]

The outdoor unit starting and stopping could be due to the fan not working so get that checked.

I would seriously advise people to avoid inverter ACs as far as possible. For energy savings go for a 5 star conventional model. It will be energy saving enough from an environmental perspective and also the savings on purchase price will offset the savings on electric bill. Also in case of failure parts will be cheaper and you have one less PCB to worry about

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

The indoor unit was working fine, outdoor unit would start then stop in a few seconds.

This could be due to a capacitor in the ODU that goes bad. Find a better mechanic and this typically costs between 500-750rs to replace.