Overvoltage protection element

摘要

The overvoltage protector has a housing and an overvoltage limiter arranged in the housing, particularly a gas-filled surge arrester (1), a suppressor diode or a varistor. The functional ability and the state of the overvoltage protector is controlled during operation by associating a monitoring component with the overvoltage limiter, which detects a current (i) flowing over the overvoltage limiter component, and by providing an evaluation unit evaluating the signal of the monitoring component.