Whole house surge protector breaker box question

Installing a Leviton 51110 whole house surge protector from Home Depot. Four leads - 2 black, a green and a white. Blacks go to two adjacent 20 amp breakers, white goes to the neutral bus, green to the ground bus.

Since I don't currently have two adjacent 20 amp breakers, I need to install two more, but my concern is does it matter where the breakers for the protector are located in relation to the others? Should they be physically on top of the others - i.e. closest to the main lines coming in so a surge hits it before it hits the other lines or does it not work that way? If they're supposed to be physically at the top of the breakers, I'd have to do a bunch of rearranging, since there isn't enough slack in the leads going to the leads to simply move them all down two spaces.

Anyone have experience with this particular unit and how well it works?

Thanks!

 

Ideally they should be as close to the main circuit breaker as possible. I don't know if there would be a serious problem locating them a bit "down the line" from the main.

 

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The instructions only say to locate the device as close as possible to the panel itself.

There is no criteria as to where in the panel the breakers need to be.

Use the shortest path......lengthening the wires should be avoided.

Verify you have 240 volts across the 2 breakers to ensure they are on separate feeds.



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Follow the instructions, but I would also advise placing the breakers as close to the main breaker as possible. Some manufacturers state this clearly in their instructions and some don't.

 

I've installed them everywhere and anywhere in the panel, including in the open spaces at the bottom, as far from the feeders as you can get. They've all worked as expected.