YachtGuard Surge Protection

[Manateeman]

Greetings. I have a YachtGuard Marine Voltage Surge Protection device.
Model 90912CT, 24 volt dc. Suppression level 47 v.
Three #12 wires, red, black, green
Two #18 wires, both red
I think I know how to connect the red, black and green but I’m not sure about the two reds which I think are for an indicator light. The unit was from
Control Technologies Inc. info no longer available.
Any suggestions as to the proper way to wire it ?
Mark the manatee.

[Manateeman]

Hi. Maybe I asked too specific a question with regard to a YachtGuard 24 volt dc
Lightning surge arrestor.
Anyone knowledgeable about wiring DC surge protection devices ?
I have a Midnight Unit on my solar and a Hoffman on my AC.
Kind regards,
Mark

[a64pilot]

All I can tell you is that my Solar combiner box has a lightning suppressor, with three wires, red, black and green, and connect to the obvious places.
My box isn’t grounded to anything though so I doubt it’s functional.
I’ve not heard of DC surge suppression

[Manateeman]

Hi. Thank you. A surge suppressor can be fitted inside the combiner box or outside, for example I combine on din rail, but both are by Midnight Solar.
The Yacht Guard has no led inside so I’m guessing the two small reds go to an indicator light but I don’t wish to experiment. Hence, the appeal for expertise.
5 wires, 3 I’m pretty sure about, 2 I don’t know.
Good luck house hunting.
Mark, a conductive manatee

[Frankly]

As you do not appear to be having much luck I will offer this general observation (I designed/ specified/ and inspected electrical power systems for a lot of years, the latter years including a lot of surge supressors).

I don't think I have ever witnessed so many "snake oil salesmen" as landed in my office after the computer/ surge supressor era arrived. In order to compete even the legitimate suppliers got pretty far over the line with their claims.

Considering that you are floating on one of the select anode materials, any device from a company "out of business" that is going to electrically connect to that anode probably belongs in the garbage can.

Without getting into the lightning protection/ anchor type/ battery power swamp, you need two protection modes. Normal mode surge protection ( think between the + & - 12 volt leads) and common mode protection (think everything connected to the engine/ aluminum mast) at a voltage relative to the sea of say 20,000 volts. Most of the damage from surges is in the latter case, but not all (spike from anchor windlass on/off probably normal mode). Typically to provide protection there must be an electrical device connected between the +-12 volt wiring (norman mode), and mast/ engine to sea water (common mode).

In your particular case proceed with caution!

PS I built my own, but for a FG yacht.

Common mode might be better thought of as between +12 volts and seawater hull ground.


Frankly

[Bycrick]

I didn’t want to get involved with this, fearing a reaction from the surge-protection-is-wonderful crowd. But I’d agree with Frankly.

Surge protectors are supposed to sit there quietly until you have a surge. When you do, they’re supposed to absorb it (MOV elements) or short-circuit it (various forms of diodes or gas tubes). But they will only absorb or dissipate a limited amount. When they’re "full," ie can’t absorb any more, they quit working. But looking at them from the outside, you generally can’t tell that they’ve quit working.

So using something that you can’t verify works correctly isn’t much help. Since the company is out-of-business, you don’t have a good way of verifying how it’s even supposed to work.

In general, surge protection should be located as close to the protected device as possible. That’s the theory followed by people that put MOV/diode devices downstream at the device power feeds. Locating the protector at the batteries will be far less effective even if the protector worked as advertised.

Finally, the specs you gave in the original post say the "suppression level" is 47 volts. That’s almost 100% overvoltage for a nominal 24 volt system. I’ll bet you that very few 24-volt electronic devices will be very happy with 47 volts. So it might protect a device from going up in smoke or coming apart in small pieces, but it’s far less likely to keep the "protected" device from being damaged.

I personally would treat it as a paperweight.

[smac999]

the best DC surge protection is a battery bank... which you already have. likely handles much bigger issues then a little box.

[Manateeman]

Thank you all gentlemen. I’ll see if I can post some pictures of what is inside the box / paperweight.
Manatee