Re: IIc keeps tripping the circuit breaker

["Tom Zuchowski" <tzuchow@attglobal.net>]

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
20020810231829.26975.00003981@mb-fi.aol.com">news:20020810231829.26975.00003981@mb-fi.aol.com...
> Tom Zuchowski replied:
>
> >Uh, I suppose they turn into black smoking charcoal by opening up? I
would
> >have supposed that was a result of the heat generated from a shorted
> >condition . . .
>
> More likely from absorbing a significant triansient.  They are supposed
> to convert that energy into heat.  Of course, where I live, we don't have
> thunderstorms to speak of, and I don't plug them into an elevator circuit,
> so there isn't much to absorb.  ;-)
>
.aol.com/MJMahon/

That is not my understanding of what MOV's do, but I don't doubt that I
could be wrong. I don't understand why they are mounted across hot and
neutral (or ground) if their purpose is to convert a transient to heat. I
thought their purpose was to shunt the transient to ground, which will of
course generate a lot of heat if the transient is big enough.

Tom Zuchowski