I live in a place where lighting strikes and power surges are very common. After experiencing multiple electronic failures I decided to look into surge protection, specifically whole house sure protectors.
Looking at a variety of models and brands, most of them seem to be rated for 120/240 V (ground, neutral and 2 live wires). My house electrical installation is 120V single phase (ground, neutral and 1 live) and I just can't seem to find a surge protector for this specific installation.
Is it posible to use a 120/240 V SPD and ignore one of the live wires and connect the rest as normal? Would it work? Would it be dangerous? Any info could help me as i'm still an amateur in electrical related stuff
Best Answer
I have done exactly that in a similar situation. It did not explode or anything. The unit I used was a HEPD80 from Schneider.
I capped one of its hots and wired its remaining hot, neutral, and ground in parallel with an L5-30 plug and receptacle to improvise "an L5-30 surge protector" which otherwise does not exist or I couldn't find one.
I have no proof that it suppresses surges. But it seems not to have contributed negatively. I could not imagine any way it would hurt.
As expected, only one of the "OK" leds light up. That could be confusing for future residents, so you might want to label it appropriately.