I've lost my share of home appliances and electronics from electrical surges. Ive checked the grounding, but still I have had equipment fried during a storm. When I put in my pellet stove, I was warned to get a good surge protector. I had them on the TV's and computers, but that isn't enough. More and more electrical equipment run with the use of circuit boards. My new furnace is one. The lightning events are building back up and I don't like replacing lost appliances and equipment. So I went to Lowes and bought a whole house surge protector. I'll still use the power strip protectors etc. but this will be a first line of defense.
I just lost the flat screen TV in our kitchen and both ceiling fans in our living room fry because of a lightning strike on the transformer out in front of our house. I'll be looking into one of those..
I researched getting one... and my research told me that these won't really matter in a lightning strike. The joule dissipation just isn't anywhere near what a strike will put out. you're better off upping your insurance policy to cover these events and get new stuff.
Surge protectors are good in the case of an open neutral and related problems. Lightnings a little different animal though.
I've had one for several years now. In fact, I am actually on my 2nd one. 1st one took a big lightning hit and saved the day. Wouldn't be without it now.
I could use some advice. Lost a computer the other night. Power went out for possibly 5 seconds and came back on. All our electronics are on surge protectors (thankfully the pellet stove and tv reciever came back after leaving it unplugged for awhile). Is there a whole home surge protector I can put in myself? Ironically I was looking at this earlier that same day!! Square D Home Electronics Protective Device (HEPD)-HEPD80 - The Home Depot Or would something else be easier?
Heard likewise. My neighbor when we lived in town was a commercial rep for a company that sold units that protect entire panels to industrial users all across Northern Ontario. We used to have problems with large phone and computer switches when I worked for Bell. He told me "they may help and they may not ... it depends on many factors." So in other words it is not any where near perfect. It was a situation where we'd see customers do it as they had like $250k in a switch in a mission critical role and even if it worked sometimes it was worthwhile for them to invest and I'm guessing it help with their insurance premiums. I like Mike Homes a lot but take everything with a bucket of salt.
