Value of good whole house surge protector.

[Redneck in training]

I just learned valuable lesson few days back. When our house was new in 2004 we got hit by a lightning that burned every single electronic switch in the house valued at about $1200. Right after that I purchases whole house surge protector and installed it in the breaker panel.
Few days back contractor hired by local utility was cutting trees in and/or close to the 20 kV (I think) power line. One of the trees hit the wires (missed my fence though) created great fireworks and blew protection in the substation. Few days later our neighbor across the road told us that the power surge destroyed smart meters of all houses around, fried electronic controller in his heat pump and supposedly did damage some equipment in other houses too. We have three smart meters on the house and all were working. I worried about my PV system but it is also working. Inspection of the surge protector revealed that while it saved our house it was destroyed in the process. It was the best spent $120. Since the utility will pay for new one I will replace it with this one: http://www.siemenssurge.com/canada-pdfs/Cutsheets/SPD4home.pdf

 

[brin]

We have had a whole house surge protector provided by our power company at the meter for 9 yrs. now...it costs an extra $6.00 a mo. but we have never had a problem and we have many lightening storms so I agree...whole house power surge protection is well worth it...

 

[grsthegreat]

i fully believe in them. Have one installed in the house and one in my shop. There designed to be destroyed while protecting the house.

Before i had installed these, i had a lightning strike take out my new oven... $600 down the toilet on repair.

 

[cqaigy2]

Thanks for the info!!

 

[lhfarm]

Thanks for posting this. I have a house full of home automation gear and should have done this years ago. Just looked at the power utility Web site and they will install a meter based system for $160. No monthly fee. Going to call them Monday.

 

[DutchHenryBrown]

We have had a whole house surge protector provided by our power company at the meter for 9 yrs. now...it costs an extra $6.00 a mo. but we have never had a problem and we have many lightening storms so I agree...whole house power surge protection is well worth it...

I have the same thing here with the power company it's $8 a month money well spent. :thumbsup:

 

[Bird]

DutchHenryBrown and brin, did they actually install surge protection for $6 & $8 a month? My power company, TXU Energy, does not install such equipment, but for $3.95 a month they provide $500 a year insurance, or for $5.95 a month $1,000 per year surge protection. In other words, insurance that will pay after the fact.

We had lightning knock out an old TV, a clock, telephone, & lamp a few years ago and our homeowners insurance paid, but of course there was a deductible. TXU's plan has no deductible, but doesn't pay a lot either.

 

[TnAndy]

I use a Sycom unit ( 120/240 T-2) wired in at the main panel. Supposed to be a very good piece of equipment. About 50 bucks.

The have additional surge protector strips at each TV, computer.

 

[BeezFun]

Popular electronics had an article about 10 years ago on surge protectors. They tested a bunch of them and found about half made the problem worse because they had a resonant frequency that was excited by the transient, so they sent an even bigger spike down the line than the original. The good ones worked very well, but I didn't see how I could tell the difference. There wasn't any correlation with cost, so money didn't guarantee quality. I think having access to the insurance, assuming it doesn't have a bunch of gotchas, is worth the price of the surge protector even if it doesn't work. I've never looked at my homeowners, wonder if it covers electrical damage from surges or lighting on the line.

 

[muddstopper]

My homeowners insurance covers lighting strikes. I suspect most full coverage policies do as well. this leads me to think that buy additional insurance from the power company would just be a waste of money. I do believe in surge protectors for all my electronics, just because the insurance company will replace something doesnt mean I want to risk burning the house down.