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TIL I wasted $150 on a 'smart' breaker panel that couldn't handle a basic surge
Bought a new smart panel for my own house last spring, thought it would save me time troubleshooting. First thunderstorm hit and the whole thing locked up, had to swap back to a standard panel the next day. Anyone else had garbage luck with these newfangled smart load centers?
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cameronwest1mo ago
Actually, most smart panels handle surges just fine if they have proper whole-house surge protection installed upstream, which a lot of homeowners overlook. A direct lightning strike or big utility surge can still overwhelm the electronics inside those units, same as any sensitive device. Sounds like yours might have been a defective unit or possibly a wiring issue, not necessarily a problem with smart panels in general.
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mark491mo ago
Whoa, wait, you had to swap the whole thing out the next day? That's wild. @cameronwest mentions whole-house surge protection, but I've got a Type 2 surge protector right at my main panel and my dumb breaker box has never blinked during a storm. My buddy's smart panel fried from a nearby lightning strike that didn't even touch his house, just the ground current. I get that electronics are fragile, but for $150 I'd expect it to survive a basic afternoon thunderstorm, not crap out completely.
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