The Basics of Why Your Home Needs Whole House Surge Protectors
After months of thinking, we’ve finally came up with the easiest way to explain why you need a whole house surge protector. Commercial buildings install them without us requiring them to get a course on electronics, electrical engineering and proper equipment protection—they have experienced once or twice in their time in business a serious economic loss due to these higher voltage issues! Helping customers understand why they need them in their home was made easier by collecting similar stories so that you can understand their importance.
Read these issues first; afterwards, if you get curious, read the rest below.
Issue One:
We installed a whole house surge protector on an electrical panel in Bath, OH, amongst other things like an electronic occupancy sensor for lights in a basement. A month later, the customer contacted us stating their TV was damaged due to lightning striking a tree. Our original thought was the surge protector did not do its job. Later, the customer contacted us and it was verified that the surge did not come through the electrical panel, but reverse fed itself through the TV’s cable line. Turns out the lightning strike made its way past the TV, through the wall outlet the TV was plugged into, and spread through the whole branch circuit. We also discovered the occupancy sensor we installed was damaged by the surge. Being that the occupancy sensor was located in the basement, and the TV was located in the bathroom on the first floor— clearly across the home, the panel must have been exposed to the surge since it was closer to the TV’s circuit. In other words, the panel connected surge protector did its job by minimizing the damage to the electronic equipment.—Asmint Cruz/Service Tech on Site
Issue Two:
A customer in Akron called us out for trouble shooting on why her outlets were not working. After walking through and testing everything, we found that the customer’s home indeed had power; but, all of her appliances were damaged. We walked outside and were actually able to see the burn mark/trail that lightning created as it made its way into the electrical panel through an electric dog fence wiring. The customer not only lost their TV’s and entertainment center, but also her washer machine, dryer, central air conditioner, refrigerator, stove, and furnace. All this equipment had electronic control boards that were sensitive to surges; and, a whole house surge protector installed at her panel would’ve saved her money!—Daniel Kish/ Service Tech on Site
Issue Three:
A customer in Richfield contacted us due to all of their landscape lighting LED lamps burning out. Even though we didn’t go out to diagnose the issue, the customer informed us it was due to lightning. Luckily the low voltage transformer took the hit and no damage was done inside the home. Nevertheless, he too could very well use a whole house surge protector; you never know where lightning will strike next!—Jack D./Customer
Now that you know real stories of how surge protectors have protected, or the absence of one have not, maybe you want to understand what they are.
