Our nation’s power grid is an incredibly complex system, made up of countless components that must work in harmony to keep our lights on. Occasionally, that system falls victim to a power surge, sending excessive voltage down the line and into homes and businesses. When those big jolts arrive, they can do irreparable damage to expensive electronics, appliances, and other electrical devices. Protecting these costly systems before a power surge occurs can save you thousands of dollars, and that’s where surge protection comes in.
What Is Surge Protection?
To understand surge protection, you need to understand a little bit about electricity. Electricity has current, which is the amount of electric charge that is moving through a wire. It also has voltage, which is kind of like the speed of the electricity. An easy way to understand this is to compare it to water. The current is how much water is moving through a pipe, while the voltage is the pressure of the water.
A power surge is a sudden increase in the voltage that comes into your home. That’s why some people refer to it as a spike, and that spike can be very destructive. Your appliances and electronics are all designed to work with a certain level of voltage, and if that level is exceeded, the circuitry can be damaged.
Power surges come about for various reasons, including lightning strikes, excessive electricity entering the grid, and failure of equipment designed to regulate voltage levels. Power surges are sudden, powerful, and very unpredictable, so there’s no way to disconnect sensitive equipment ahead of time.
Don’t Circuit Breakers Protect Me?
Some homeowners think that if they have a modern electrical service with good breakers, they don’t need surge protection. That’s not accurate. While circuit breakers do perform an important role in protecting your home, they are not designed for the same work that surge protectors do.
Power surges result from excessive voltage, but circuit breakers handle the opposite side of the power equation, which is current. When too much electricity goes into a circuit, the wiring and fixtures on it can be damaged. They can even overheat and catch fire. A circuit breaker is designed to disconnect power when the recommended level of current is exceeded.
Notice that there’s nothing in there about voltage. Remember, voltage is the “pressure” of electricity, and circuit breakers can’t do anything to manage that. You need surge protection to deflect that extra pressure.
Why Not Use Individual Surge Protectors on Each Appliance?
Every discount store has a section of so-called surge protectors available for purchase. These are usually part of a power strip designed to supply electricity to five or six devices. While these may provide some protection to those five or six things, there are some important limitations to consider.
Power strip surge protectors can cause clutter. There isn’t always room around the furniture or the appliance to place the strip where it needs to be. Also, the outlets in a power strip are not adequately protected from damage or spills because they are not necessarily upright like a standard wall receptacle.
The biggest limitation of an individual surge protection device is that you cannot get them for larger devices or for anything that is hard-wired. A hard-wired appliance could be something like your water heater or range that does not actually plug into an outlet. With no plug, there’s nowhere to put the surge protector. Also, your corner hardware store will not carry a surge protector heavy enough for a furnace or washing machine.
How Does a Whole-Home Surge Protector Work?
Instead of doing surge protection item by item on a few low-cost items and skipping the big-ticket equipment, you can protect everything in your house by having a whole-home surge protector installed. Unlike the power strip units that you may already have, these systems do not provide isolated protection to only those items that you select. Instead, they protect everything in your home from power surges.
A whole-home surge protector is installed with the electrical service inside your house, positioning it to intercept any excessive voltage before it can travel elsewhere in the home. Its operation is fairly simple. If it detects a surge in voltage, it deflects the excess and allows only the normal level to pass.
Because it’s wired directly into your home, a whole-home surge protector must be professionally installed by an experienced and qualified electrician.
Can It Pay for Itself?
Like any home feature, a surge protection system is an investment. By installing one, you are giving yourself a lot of peace of mind, which can’t be measured in dollars and cents.
Of course, the system will save you real money as well. A surge protection could easily pay for itself by preventing damage to just one major household appliance. If you’ve had to buy a freezer or stove recently, you know how big those price tags can get. Keeping your appliances safe with surge protection could quickly save you thousands of dollars.
Even better, your surge protector might save you money even if you never experience a power surge. Your homeowner’s insurance may provide some level of coverage against a power surge, potentially covering at least some of the costs of repairing or replacing items damaged by excessive current. If you do have such coverage on your policy, installing a whole-home surge protector might entitle you to a decrease in your insurance premiums. That’s a great way to pay for a surge protector!
What Should a Good Surge Protector Have?
As you talk to your electrical contractor about installing a surge protector in your home, make sure you discuss the features that the system should offer. Your electrician can advise you on which ones will be best for your particular situation, but there are a few general guidelines that experts agree will help you get good protection and performance. These guidelines will make a good starting point for your conversation with the person who will supply and install the protector for your home.
Generally speaking, you should choose a unit that provides protection against a surge of at least 40,000 amps. This would be sufficient for even an extreme event on the power grid. You will also want a unit that notifies you when it has been activated. That’s because there is some chance of damage to the unit, and if a surge has reduced its ability to protect your home against a second surge, you need to know that so that you can see about repairs. The unit may have lights or audible alarms to alert you after a surge has hit.
Get Protection for Your Home!
Without surge protection, you’re always just one thunderstorm away from potentially getting hit with thousands of dollars in repair bills and replacement costs for essential home appliances and electronics. There’s no reason to take that chance. Our team at Mend Services in Austin is ready to get your home set up to fight off power surges. We can also take care of all kinds of electrical repairs, heating and cooling work, plumbing, and indoor air quality. Contact Mend Services today!
