Testing Performance of Low Voltage Arresters

Abstract

Due to important consideration of protection against lightning surge on electrical, electronic and telecommunication equipment, it was necessary to carry out a special study to look at the performance of protective devices. The study was testing performance of arresters on low voltage system. The activity was testing of arresters using steady state and impulse voltages. The arresters consisted of gas tube, zener diode, varistor and spark gap arresters, then it was made a cascade circuit between the varistor and spark gap arresters with a decoupling element. The decoupling elements were used air, iron and ferrite. The test yielded data of current and voltage on the tables and oscilloscope waveforms. The arresters had cut voltages early different from each other, namely the gas tube, zener diode, spark gap and varistor arresters were at the voltages of 500 V, 250 V, 1,000 V and 565 V respectively. The iron core decoupling element cascade circuit had the least oscillation among remaining cores.