UPB Disaster!, looking for thoughts...

[bmil]

Came up to my 2nd home to find 7 (of 15) exterior and interior lights on controlled by UPB switches. Additionally 3 more UPB switches were totally DOA along with 3 DOA Insteon switches I haven't switched out for UPB yet. The UPB switches that were on were a mix of PCS/HAI/SA, they appeared still functional manually. The 3 dead UPB switches were all Simply Automated ones.

I also discovered that my PCS PIM was DOA although it was plugged into the built-in outlet of an SA PIM that is plugged into the wall. The SA PIM is still functional.

After further investigating, I discovered that my 2 HAI passive phase couplers I have wired into my main and adjacent sub-panel were totally DOA also. Obviously I suspected a power surge or something related.

This is a vacation home in the boonies where I've always considered the power to be suspect. Brief off,on,off,on power glitches are not infrequent and going more than 2 weeks without at least one short power loss is the exception rather than the rule. I do have a Leviton whole-house TVSS installed but both phase lights still show green.

I bought replacements to take up for the DOA switches, PIM and couplers but I'm now concerned about continually blowing them out as I just received a call from a friend who keeps an eye on the place telling me all the lights are on again (3 weeks now since the first incident). It appears it's the same UPB controlled lights that were on the first time (some UPB lights didn't go on either time).

I was curious if anyone else has experienced such an occurrance with UPB devices and what, if anything, did you do to address the problem. These switches have been in for over a year and this was the first such occurrance.

Thanks in advanced for any words of wisdom...

 

[fcwilt]

That kinds sucks!

I have a number of UPB devices here at home and the power around here is sometimes flaky and I have a whole house surge thingie (WHST) as well.

Never had a problem in four years (knock on wood).

Perhaps something inside the home is generating a spike? Would the WHST stop an surge from the inside?

If you find out what the cause please let us know.

 

[Digger]

Any other electronics in the house connected to AC Power at the time (TV's computers etc) and were any of them damaged? To me it almost sounds like a lightning strike in the area close to your home.

 

[bmil]

No other electrical device was affected that I observed. My TV's were unplugged but I had several radios, 3 Sat. DVR's (on ups's though), answering machine, cordless phone base, HVAC, well pump, clocks, wall oven, etc. Most of my 'puter and HA stuff: wireless AP, Elk M1, etc. are on a UPS or wall wart plugged into a UPS.

My 3 PC's weren't affected because not only did I discover the UPB issue but also that a thoughtful burglar had broken in and rescued them (I'm assuming before all the lights came on). Obviously this last trip up was not a pleasant one

My feeling was a possible lightning hit also.

 

[nightwalker]

I've seen surges take out UPB and other powerline based lighting. Not pleasant but it happens. I had a customer about a year ago that took a surge and took out almost 50 UPB switches, they were covered by the power company since the surge was their fault and not the fault of a lightening strike or other weather related reason, seems they had a transformer blow and send a surge.

Anyway as we were replacing the switches we also installed a WHSP in each panel. They're cheap insurance and while they won't stop everything they get most.

Sorry to hear about the rest of your loss too, maybe time for some sort of security at the vacation house.

 

[Steve]

I've had similar experience twice. But it was pretty much SAI stuff and when they examined them they said the diode were in various states of failure. They supposedly had a 'inferior' batch of switches with these diodes, somewhere around firmware 1.10. SAI is pretty good about warranty so check into it. But that would not explain other brands failing also. There are all different types of surges and spikes. Some are small, but fast and go right thru typical whole house suppressors. Thats why its important to have a good unit with filtering, etc that will catch different types of surges and also internally generated stuff called 'electronic rust' that will kill stuff slowly over time.

 

[bmil]

Thanks for everyone's input!

The whole-house surge protector on my main panel is the cheapest one Leviton makes I think (51120-1). I probably need to look into replacing it with a more substantial and capable model. Maybe replace the one on the main and move the Leviton one over to the sub-panel. I never thought about putting one on the sub-panel too but it makes sense.

Next time up I'm also going to try and talk with one of the power companies tech's to see if they had any "anomolies" they'll admit to around that date range.

 

[WayneW]

Next time up I'm also going to try and talk with one of the power companies tech's to see if they had any "anomolies" they'll admit to around that date range.

An APC SmartUPS (or similar brand with good output) with monitoring software (such as apcupsd) is a good resource for catching and recording some of these events, if feasible.

 

[Digger]

Thanks for everyone's input!

The whole-house surge protector on my main panel is the cheapest one Leviton makes I think (51120-1). I probably need to look into replacing it with a more substantial and capable model. Maybe replace the one on the main and move the Leviton one over to the sub-panel. I never thought about putting one on the sub-panel too but it makes sense.

Next time up I'm also going to try and talk with one of the power companies tech's to see if they had any "anomolies" they'll admit to around that date range.

I have a Leviton 32120-1 in stock I sell for $312 on my site if your are interested. Shipping is about $8 or $9 for that I think.

32120-1