Greenwave Reality (Nuon) switches, overvoltage protection
Posted: Wednesday 12 November 2014 12:07
After having blown up two Greenwave Reality switches (Powernode, Smartplug) bought thru Nuon (The Netherlands) I got curious about the why and how of it.
The first one that blew ruined all Z-Wave communication on the network as long as it was plugged into the mains.
The second one that blew just didn't do anything at all.
It took some digging before things became clear to me.
In the garage there are 6 TL fluorescent tubes which are switched on and off at roughly the same time by means of a double mechanical switch. It seems that switching all the lights off at exactly the same time makes the coils in the (conventional) ballast discharge over the half opened switch, sparking back into the mains. Due to the inductance of the rather long cables back to the house the mains voltage rises quite a bit, causing the Greenwave Reality powernode to die...
The easiest resolution was to insert an APC Surge Arrestor in-between the mains and the new power node..... I can now play the piano on the switches without the powernodes to die on me....
I hope this info is useful for someone....
Sly.
The first one that blew ruined all Z-Wave communication on the network as long as it was plugged into the mains.
The second one that blew just didn't do anything at all.
It took some digging before things became clear to me.
In the garage there are 6 TL fluorescent tubes which are switched on and off at roughly the same time by means of a double mechanical switch. It seems that switching all the lights off at exactly the same time makes the coils in the (conventional) ballast discharge over the half opened switch, sparking back into the mains. Due to the inductance of the rather long cables back to the house the mains voltage rises quite a bit, causing the Greenwave Reality powernode to die...
The easiest resolution was to insert an APC Surge Arrestor in-between the mains and the new power node..... I can now play the piano on the switches without the powernodes to die on me....
I hope this info is useful for someone....
Sly.