Whole house surge protection. What is it? What do you need to know? Why is it an important investment for the safety of homeowners and their devices?
A good whole-house surge protection device allows in only the electricity your home needs and not the unruly over-voltages from the utility—then it protects your devices from any trouble that can occur from surges inside the house.
Whole-house surge protective devices (SPDs) are typically wired to the electric service box and located nearby to protect all the appliances and electrical systems in a home.
80 percent of surges in a home we generate ourselves.
Homes are in more need of whole house surge protection today than ever.
Homes have many more electronics, and even in lighting with LEDs – if you take an LED apart there’s a little circuit board there. Washers, dryers, appliances also have circuit boards today, so there’s a lot more today to be protected in your home from power surges—even your home’s lighting.
Lightning isn’t the biggest danger to electronics and other systems in the home.
Most people think of surges as lightning, but 80 percent of surges are transient [short, intense bursts], and we generate them ourselves – they’re internal to the home. Generators and motors like those in air conditioning units and appliances introduce small surges into a home’s electrical lines. It’s rare that one large surge will take out appliances and everything at one time, but those mini-surges over the years will add up, degrade the performance of electronics, and cut short their useful lifespans.
Overvoltages on the utility lines can also harm systems in the home, which is a prime reason for whole-house surge protection at the electrical service panel.
Whole house surge protection protects other electronics.
You may ask, “If most of the harmful surges in a house come from machines like AC units and appliances, why bother with whole-house surge protection at the breaker panel?” The answer is that an appliance or system on a dedicated circuit, like an air conditioning unit, will send the surge back through the breaker panel, where it can be shunted to protect everything else in the home.
It’s protecting the wiring in the house,
and every outlet is being protected.
Whole house surge protection should be layered.
If an appliance or device sends a surge through a circuit that’s shared among other devices and not dedicated, then those other outlets could be susceptible to a surge, which is why you don’t want it just at the electrical panel. Surge protection should be layered in the house to be at both at the electrical service to protect the whole home and at the point of use to protect sensitive electronics.
Here’s what to look for in whole house surge protection devices:
Most homes with 120-volt service can be adequately protected with a 80kA-rated surge protector. Chances are a home is not going to see large spikes of 50kA to 100kA. Even nearby lightning strikes traveling over power lines will be dissipated by the time that surge reaches a house. A home will likely never see a surge over 10kA. However, a 10kA–rated device receiving a 10kA surge, for example, could use up its MOV surge-shunting capacity with that one surge, so something in the order of 80kA will ensure it lasts longer. Homes with subpanels should have added protection of about half the kA rating of the main unit. If there’s a lot of lightning in an area or if there’s a building using heavy machinery nearby, look for an 80kA rating.
Call us at (860) 314-1518 if you have any questions and/or if you would like
to set up an appointment to have one of our experienced Electricians come out and provide you with an estimate for whole home surge protection. We’re all about keeping you, your home, and all of your electronic devices safe. Installing a whole home surge protector can do just that!
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