Thios may be a better question for the electrical forum, but,........

Yes it's a good idea, and some think it's mandatory. They are all over the board in terms of size and price. The 2 most popular places are at the meter socket outside or off of the main load center. They range in size from a shoebox to the size of a juice box. Some manuf. have special breakers that fit in the load center that do the same thing.

Costs range from $75 if you DIY and go the breaker route to $2000 for more complicated installs on 400 or 600 AMP supplied homes.

Redundant protection doesn't hurt but it's questionable as to the effect. It's short money when compared to a $700 Sub Zero computer or $2500 plasma screen. If you have a projector TV you should also look into an uninteruptable power supply. If power goes out and the fan cannot cool down the bulb it can burst, usually to the cost of 300-500 bucks.

I live in Florida, very near the lightning center of the US. After have many problems with power over the years, I installed a whole house surge protector. It has made a big difference-the little problems we had with odd electrical failures just vanished.

I still maintain the computer on a UPS, and have an additional surge arrestors on other equipment as well.

Virtually all surge arrestors are made with components called MOV's. They absorb the power surges, Unfortunately, MOV's wear out with use. The circuit will still work, but the surge suppression capacity is gone. I mention to to let you know that buying a surge suppressor, wether permanent or a plug-in, is not a one-time out-it-in-and-forget-it proposition. They need to be replaced every few years to remain effective.

Can you get a discount on your homeowner's insurance if you have a whole-house surge protector installed?

try_hard

You'll have to ask your insurance company, but I suspect not. I'm not sure they cover appliances damaged by lightening, so putting in a SS would not reduce their likelihood of paying out.

Re: MOVs, there is a company that makes surger suppressors that do NOT use MOVs and never where out. Don't think they have a whole house version, but I have several for my expensive audio gear and they work great. See the link for more info.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brickwall Surge Suppressor (No MOV)

Our local electrical utility here in Louisiana installs (and maintains) whole-house voltage surge protectors. The cost is about $6.00 per month which also includes insurance for equipment that might be damaged by a rogue surge. I also have installed local surge protection on my computers and A/V equipment.

Unfortunately, this type of protection does NOT generally protect against damage resulting from lightning strikes.

Thanks for the responses regarding insurance.
try_hard

It was explained to me that the single protection that whole house protectors provide is from "near" (not direct)lightning strikes. If a strike occurs at a power pole feeding your home, the whole house protector provide a level of protection.
I know someone that had a near strike on a rural new construction, that took out the furnace controls and a plugged in radio. Their insurance company suggested the installation of a whole house protector.

I installed a protector (Panamax) that requires a 240 volt breaker close to the top of the service entrance box.
I also use UPS to protect computers and home theatre.
The new and expensive kitchen appliances are probably the biggest risk of loss.
Hopefully the whole house system will handle any spikes to the kitchen.
Another fact with the whole house protectors is that tripping them will most likely destroy them. (at $80 - $100).
Any DIYer that has worked in the entrance box can easily install one of these.

Good Luck
Carguy

There are "boxes" that protect against lightning that are different from surge protection.

You do not want to claim stereos, computers, appliances on your homeowners policy unless part of a catastrophic whole whole house loss. Your rates WILL go way up and you may be dropped and blacklisted. If you have big $$$$$$$$$$ gear you most likey have a rider for that specific stuff anyway.

Most surge products come with an equipment "insurance policy". Never heard of anyone collecting on one though.

A whole hopuse surge protector won't protect you from a lightning strike entering the house elsewhere. This happened to me. The only brand surge protector that worked was the "Zero Surge", the inventor of the technology that the above mentioned Brickwall Protection uses. My Panamax and APC's fried along with the electronics.

Thankfully I was mostly covered by insurance.

Greg

We've had both lightning and a fault in the main electrical line.

The lightning hit the house in back and fried a few things. After that, our electrician installed the whole house surge protector in the box.

When the fault took place, we lost 9 things. The fault blew out an old electrical fixture in the laundry room, which actually smoked. The small electrics including phones, TV, fax, window air conditioner and the motor to the air jet tub.It blew out the refrigerator and microwave but not the oven, cooktop or dw. No idea whether the protector helped with some things and not others. Difficult to say when there's a line break vs a storm or other.

Insurance took care of most of replacement -- not 100% -- in each case.

We were advised to get lighting rods put on the house but the price was so obnoxious we never went forward with it.

I hope and pray no one has to go through this or worse (having seen tornado pics yesterday).

Lightning can be nasty in all the ways it can get into your house. When we lived in Florida, we got hit by one and it went through the phone system and shocked my wife really bad while she was on the phone! Of course, the phone was shot. It went as far as shorting out some of the electrical wires behind the walls and causing them to become open. Some of our switches and lights stopped working.

As to surge protectors, there is a lot of junk out there and sorting out the good and bad is beyond the means of consumers. Still, if one can afford $500, it may be a good option for a house, especially when you don't live in it full time, hence the reason we plan to put one in our vacation house. It might not do anything, but sure makes you sleep a bit easier :).

A good grounding system for your house is also important. The single rod (or two) if lucky that most electricians drive in the ground is nowhere near adequate enough for todays' larger, modern electronic laden houses. Your water pipes are not adequate enough in most instances either.

I happened to be standing about 20' from my CB box when lightning hit somewhere on my property. The whole house surge protector made an unbelievable amount of noise as it processed the energy. It saved everything in the house. All I lost were the systems in the ground: well pump, and sprinkler and security systems. No discount from my insurance company even though I saved them a lot of money.

What make and model do you have? I'm in the market big time.

Here in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina we had a surge protector installed by the electric company. I think it cost a couple of hundred. I would contact the electric company as a first step. If not, go to a really good electrical contractor.

Prompted by this thread, I just checked and Georgia Power in our area will put whole house protection on the electrical line, one cable or sat TV line, and up to two phone lines for $9.99 a month. Might cost more over many years than a self-install, but pretty tempting in avoiding install and initial purchase costs. Suspect more and more utilities are offering this now.

Mine is an "Intermatic". My model #EG240R appears to be out of production. It never occurred to me that after doing it's job, it might not be any good any more. I guess I'll have to do some research on that.

Here is a link that might be useful: surge protectors