The Value Of Surge Protection

The goal of surge protection is to prevent damage to your home and to your electronics caused by power surges. There are two types of surge protection to choose from:

1. Service entrance surge protection. This is called a whole house surge protector and is installed at the main circuit panel of your home, next to the electric meter. It's an external piece of equipment that acts as a buffer between your power supplier and your home.

2. Point-of-use surge protection. This is a sinlge surge protector that plugs into your wall and is used on individual appliances, or at least it should be used on only one electrical appliance. There are surge protectors made for protecting more than one appliance, like computer surge protectors which protect all computer components.

For the typical home, many experts recommend a minimum surge protection network consisting of:

1. As with the above description, a service entrance surge protector that protects the incoming electrical power, any incoming phone line, cable or satellite dish network. it can be either a whole house surge protector that protects all incoming lines at one point of entry, like the main breaker; or it can be done on an individual/per item application, for instance a phone surge protector, cable surge protector, power surge protector, etc.

With a power surge protector the line is protected either at the main breaker panel or at the meter.

2. Single surge protection devices for individual appliances with a 330-volt clamping voltage at all expensive electronics and appliances, such as flatscreen TVs, DVD players, home stereos, and personal computers; all have electronic circuits which are susceptible to power surges.

Sensitive appliances include any electronics with push buttons, things like digital clocks; anything with phones wires or coaxial cables connected to it, like landline phones, home computers, cable tv or antennas or satellite dishes should all run through their own surge protection device.

There is no surge protector or surge protection system that can protect against all surges in electrical power. A direct strike from lightning to your home's electrical system may be too great for the any single surge protector to handle. The tiered surge protection layout recommended within this article is your best chance of protection.