If you take a moment to think about all the appliances and electronic devices in your home, taking it all in can be overwhelming. All it takes is one nasty power surge to cause permanent damage to one or more of these devices. One method for preventing this issue is investing in a whole-home surge protection system.
Understanding Power Surges
Your house can experience a surge of power through its electrical system for many reasons. One of the most obvious is a lightning strike on one of the local utility lines. The lightning transfers excess power that can travel directly into your home through the main power line and to all of your different receptacles, lighting fixtures, and so forth. These power surges are also common when your local power grid switches on or off due to transformer issues. Whenever too much power travels through your wiring and to your appliance and electronics, it can result in overheating and potentially a fire.
What's a Whole-Home Surge Protector?
A surge protector works to divert excess energy to a safe location. When most people think about a surge protector, they picture a power strip surge protector. While this can work great for protecting specific appliances that are plugged into it, it's not a great option to protect your entire house. A whole-home surge protector is installed directly at your panel box to capture excess energy as it comes directly into your home from the main power line outside. It will grab this energy and divert it to your house's grounding system to prevent it from causing any damage to your electrical system or anything plugged into it.
Current Capacity Rating
When selecting a whole-home surge protector, one of the first things you want to look for is its current capacity rating. This number is given in the form of amps and describes how much energy the particular device can divert. For example, a whole-home surge protector that's rated for 50,000 amps can successfully divert up to 50,000 amps during a power surge. Most households can get away with using a surge protector rated for 40,000 to 50,000 amps. To put this into perspective, the average lightning strike is about 30,000 amps. This means your whole-home surge protector will be able to successfully divert the excess energy coming through your electrical line safely to your grounding system without resulting in any damage to your appliances. The higher the capacity of a whole-home surge protector, the more expensive it will be. One thing to remember when choosing the ideal current capacity for your new whole-home surge protector is that there will always be some rare instances in which the device can't protect you against. For example, there have been some lightning strikes reported at 100,000 amps. These are very rare, but are possible. If your house is hit with 100,000 amps, your whole-home surge protector won't be able to successfully divert all that excess energy. That means some of your items may be damaged.
Clamping Voltage
Another factor to consider is the clamping voltage of the surge protector. This describes the maximum amount of voltage it will allow to pass through it before the surge protector starts diverting excess energy. In general, the lower the clamping voltage that a surge protector has, the more expensive it's going to be. Most homeowners find a clamping voltage of around 400 to 600 volts is ideal for their needs. If you have a lot of costly sensitive electronics in your household, you may want to consider a lower clamping voltage ranging from 330 to 400 volts.
LED Indicator or Alarm Warning
Another feature you may want to look for in your next whole-home surge protector is an LED indicator light or an alarm system that will let you know if the surge protector stops working. A simple solution is the LED indicator, which will show a green light when it's operating correctly and a red light when it's not working. You can purchase a surge protector that has an audible alarm system that will go off whenever it isn't working. There are even smart whole-home surge protectors that will send a message to your smartphone when they experience a malfunction so that you can respond quickly to repair it.
Ultimate Appliance Protection
There's no doubt that the price of purchasing a new appliance for your home is quite extensive. The thought of having to replace one or more of your appliances unexpectedly due to a power surge that causes permanent damage to their internal components can be frightening. This is especially true when it comes to your central air conditioner or heating system. A whole-home surge protector is a great way to give you peace of mind about the safety of your appliances and will protect your financial well-being. This can prevent you from having to spend thousands of dollars to replace damaged appliances.
One Cost-Effective Device
While at-point surge protectors, like power strip surge protectors, can be a great way to protect certain appliances or electronic devices in your house, they don't make sense for a whole-home solution. You'd have to purchase an abundance of them to protect all of your electronics and appliances, which can be quite costly. A whole-home surge protector can be a cost-effective investment to protect all of your electronics and your electrical system’s components.
Longer Appliance Lifespan
When you think about a power surge, you likely picture your entire home going out. The reality is that there are a lot of small power surges that happen throughout the electrical system. While these may not cause extensive damage all at once, the repeated surges can weaken the electrical components of your devices. This can lead to a much shorter lifespan and more malfunctions. A whole-home surge protector is a great way to prevent these random surges and extend the overall longevity of your appliances and other electrical devices.
Maintenance and Longevity
The average whole-home surge protector requires very little maintenance and upkeep to stay in good working condition. It's a good idea to routinely check to ensure that it's operating correctly in the event you have one with a built-in LED indicator light. The average whole-home surge protector will last you anywhere between five and 10 years. If you frequently experience lightning strikes and power surges in your area, you can expect a shorter lifespan than if you only experience them every now and then.
Professional Installation
Whole-home surge protectors require more extensive installation than just plugging in a cord like a power strip surge protector. For this reason, it's necessary to have one of our professional electricians do the installation for you. They'll be able to install the whole-home surge protector at your panel box and actively hook up an appropriate two-pole circuit breaker to accommodate its use. It's important to know that most surge protector manufacturers require professional installation to maintain the warranty coverage on your device.
Expert Whole-Home Surge Protection Installation Services
Mister Sparky America's On-Time Electrician© offers whole-home surge protection installation services to the Ramsey, MN area. We can also help with all of your whole-home surge protection replacement, repair, and maintenance needs. Call us today to book a service consultation with one of our helpful electricians.
