Testing Of Surge Arrester

How do you intend to test it? Depending on the type, you may find that if it works correctly, you have to throw it away and buy a new one.

attach +- 1m solid bare conductor to connection 1, attach hand length bare conductor to connection 2, have mother in law stand on rooftop in thunderstorm, hold on connection 2 hand-piece, lift and hold towards heaven, wait for test to occur.

Guest,

Simple answer: Definitely NO.

Reasoning: Insulation resistance is tested by applying a "high" voltage DC supply (250V, 500V, or 100V) to the device and measuring the current flow. Lightning arresters use components that act like resistors until a particular voltage is reached, then they act like a short circuit while the voltage is above this threshold. Therefore, a typical insulation resistance tester will report failure. If you have a tester that can slowly ramp the applied voltage up to its rated maximum, you can graph the results and prove that a lightning arrester is working as designed.

Most people don't realize that in an AC circuit, the reported circuit voltage is its RMS or "root mean square" value. That is a weighted average that is the peak voltage divided by √2. Thus, a 120V-RMS circuit has an instantaneous peak voltage of about 120*1.414 ≈ 170V. Since the actual input voltage can vary, a safety margin is used, so the actual threshold voltage will be 190V or more. For other AC voltages, similar calculations can be used.

--JMM