Grounding Scam Exposed

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Grounding Scam Exposed

When you purchase surge protective devices you have a right to demand that they really protect your electronic equipment from lightning damage. The fact that most SPD products have many reported failures in the field is a cause for concern. For years telecom customers and others have been told by various agents and contractors that "the reason your equipment has burned (despite the SPDs you bought and installed) is that your grounding is inadequate." Because of such advice, millions and millions of RMB have been spent improving grounding systems. But the result has been NO improvement in the success rate of surge protection. This is well documented by Mr. Liu Ji Ke of the China Telecommunications Research institute in an article which recently appeared in the China "Lightning Protection" magazine. The article can be read in Chinese on this website. Here are some fictions about grounding:
Fictions:		The truth:
Your ground system must have no greater than 5 ohms of ground resistance for effective surge protection. In fact, you need 2 ohms or 1 ohm...		Well made surge protectors, such as MCG surge protectors are completely effective using a ground resistance of 10 ohms or even 20+ ohms. If the ground resistance is good enough for your electronic equipment, than it is adequate for surge protection.
The most important feature of a grounding system is the measured Ohm value of the ground resistance.		The most important feature of a grounding system is to ensure that all local grounds are bonded together to avoid a voltage drop between the grounds. There is no magic "ohm" value which guarantees effective surge protection.
If, after installing surge protectors your electronic equipment has suffered lightning damage, the thing to do is dig deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper....		If your electronic equipment has been damaged by lightning despite installed surge protectors check the following: Was the Lightning handling ability (known as I-peak) high enough for your location? Did your SPD have backup protection paths on each phase? Were all the grounds (including data signal grounds and AC power grounds) all bonded together?
Your electronic equipment requires 1-5 ohms.		No electronic equipment you possess has a manufacturer's spec of 1-5 ohms. This is a scam used by some agents to either void a warranty or cause you to spend large volumes of money on needless grounding improvements. Check directly with the manufacturer.