lightning protection partner acs

[avayanooby]

Thanks in advance for the assistance. Todays subject is lightning, new customer has a partner ACS in his very large home, we recently had an electrical storm and once again his system is spent. He has records of previous vendors onsite replacing the system every couple of years after a good lightning storm, It looks like this one is number 3 or 4.


Current status of grounding of the processor is to the electrical conduit that the system is plugged into. I am unable to follow the conduit through the walls to see if it just a "sleeve" or if it makes its way back to the panel. There is alot of Rolmex in house, just makes me wonder if that conduit actually goes anywhere. I also saw an old clamp on what appears to be the cooper lines for the ac condensor units, as all the water lines I can see are plastic pex.

There is a ups that the power and the 1 incoming line route through. No external grounding lug for the little ups.

Standard residential interface from Telco in the basement. No grounding from that panel noticable. This seems to be an extension from an undergound box out side where the phone and cable companys come in from the street. The cable coax comes into a bank of splitters which also has no grounding on it.

Home run cabling trough out the house for all 18 stations.


My questions are :

1) The processor ground should be to the electrical plug ground, neutral, and not the "ground rod"?

2) what itw linx part numbers are recommended for partner stations (extensions) and incoming telco line; 66 block applications? or, the station operational voltages for the 2 pr desk phones ? Ring voltage of the 1 pr analog station?

3) Would it be worth isolating all extension cabling from the system with the protectors ? Or would just being able to do one side not be worth it at all ?


Thanks again for the help, would like to get this done right so I dont replace it next year..

also posted in General Telephony discussion board

 

[SYQUEST]

First of all, from your description most everything is in violation of NEC article 800 and other related NEC sections in regards to BONDING/GROUNDING of various components at that residence.

Until proper BONDING/GROUNDING is in place, all the ITW protectors won't do one bit of good!!! You will continue to have failures. You should contact a knowledgeable electrician that knows proper BONDING/GROUNDING practices, and review everything from the COAX splitters to that outlet.

Also read the Partner ACS install document. You might get a copy of the NEC code book, and familiarize yourself with Article 800, etc. There are simple tests that you can perform to check if an outlet is properly grounded.

By making sure the equipment and systems installed meet NEC code requirements for BONDING/GROUNDING will keep people and equipment safe, and hopefully prevent any accidents.

....JIM....

 

[Dexman]

There is 1 caveat with the grounding method suggested by Avaya in the Installation documentation.

A former contributor to Tek-Tips posted a good accounting of a problem he ran into with one of his customers.

Here is the link to the post:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=904184

The member's handle is hbiss.



If it ain't broke, I haven't fixed it yet.

 

[SYQUEST]

Thanks Dexman, I forgot about that thread. It sums it up very nicely. If more folks understood BONDING & GROUNDING, and followed the proper practice, things would be safer!

....JIM....

 

[avayanooby]

Thanks