To prevent expensive electronic equipment from being damaged by power surges, your home should be equipped with a whole house surge protector. Often, whole house surge protectors are connected to the service panel where your home’s electrical breakers are. To ensure it is installed correctly, you can hire a certified electrician to install it, or you could do the installation yourself. Whole house surge protectors are a sound investment because they will likely save you from having to pay costly repairs in the future. You can probably spend less than $300 to adequately protect your home.
If heavy winters, electrical storms or high winds are common in the area where you live, it is important to have whole house surge protection. Spikes in power can be caused by lightning strikes near the home as well as power lines and utility poles that are damaged by high winds and heavy snow. In effect, the device will absorb the electricity spike, protecting all of your valuable electronics from being damaged. Spikes that last for only a millisecond can heavily damage your expensive items such as washers, dryers, and computers. The protectors that you plug these items into directly will not adequately protect them from large spikes. You should not trust your electronics to fancy extension cords. Your electronics will be guaranteed to be secure and safe with a whole house protector..
Plug-in surge protectors will absorb the extra voltage that might slip by the whole house unit. Both devices work the same in normal conditions by allowing electricity to flow through. When there is a power surge, the extra current is deflected into a grounded wire. The better protector you have, the quicker it will respond to a power surge. The cost of installation, if you hire an electrician, will usually cost about two hours for labor plus the cost of the unit. Your insurance company may offer a discount for installing a protective device in your home. The device will pay for itself when you experience a power surge.