[billethkid]

If you have it did you do it yourself?
Have SECO do it?

btk

[BogeyBoy]

Seco

[tankdvr1950]

SECO.....it was just a lot easier to have them do it...plus u get a bunch of neat, high end surge protectors from them when they do the install

[Hawkwind]

Aprox. cost?

[Army Guy]

If I remember right it costs $5 a month and $35 for install. We think that is a very small price to pay for the protection.
We have not installed ours yet, but will have SECO install as soon as we start plugging things in with the move.

Army Guy

[k2at]

Had an electrician do it. Cost $295 and got 3 arrestors. One whole house and two on airconditioner line and lawn sprinkler line.

[drdodge]

I dont believe you can do it yourself
drd

[k2at]

It can be done yourself very easily, but it requires that you pull the meter.

[faithfulfrank]

SECO also has the option to have them install it for free if you BUY it from them.....cost $295. When you subtract the $35.00 you then do not have to buy, then your cost to own it is $260.00

That equals a 52 month payback......if you plan on owning your home longer then 4 years and 4 months, you are better off buying it, IMHO.

I've done complete electrical services in homes, but since I was up North, I had SECO do it.

Frank D.

[784caroline]

What is the difference between what SECO does and what an electrician installs...I know SECO is on the Meter and what an electrician installs is a double pole breaker in the box. Is one better than another??

[GMONEY]

I had talked to Galaxy Home Solutions in Wildwood. THey told me about 400.00 for total home protection. Suppose to be better than Seco. Has anyone had Galaxy do this?

[westom]

Originally Posted by Lenhart Electric

When you are shopping for your plug-in strips, stick with a name you know, GE or Intermatic or some brand you feel will honor their warranty.

Typically, a bigger warranty means a less effective or reliable product. That applies to most all industries from cars to surge protectors.

That protector warranty is often so full of exemptions as to not be honored. But then it also does not claim to provide protection in its numeric spec sheets. Fortunately appliances already contain significant protection.

A lightning strike to overhead wires down the street is a direct lightning strike to household appliances. A surge that can overwhelm an appliance’s internal protection is the reason why a 'whole house' protector is earthed. The IEEE even defines how much protection an earthed protector provides - in numbers and from lightning. From IEEE Green Book entitled 'Static and Lightning Protection Grounding':
> Lightning cannot be prevented; it can only be intercepted or diverted to a
> path which will, if well designed and constructed, not result in damage.
> Even this means is not positive, providing only 99.5-99.9% protection. ...
> Still, a 99.5% protection level will reduce the incidence of direct strokes
> from one stroke per 30 years ... to one stroke per 6000 years ...

A protector that costs maybe $1 per protected appliance. How much for the plug-in protector costing maybe $25 or $150 per appliance? Earthing a 'whole house' protector is definitely for lightning protection of household appliances. Even the IEEE says so. Should you need additional protection, spend another $5000 for plug-in protectors to get an extra maybe 0.2% additional protection.

Above IEEE Standard 142 says protectors are installed for lightning protection. Other IEEE Standards also discuss this.

How is protection accomplished? One highly regarded source is Polyphaser’s application notes. Sorry - the system will not let me post that easily:
Triple w dot polyphaser dot com slash technical_notes dot aspx

What does your telco - their computer connected to overhead wires all over town - do to never have a surge damaged computer? Telcos don't waste money on plug-in protectors. They earth every incoming wire in every cable - for lightning protection. To make that protection even better, first, their protectors are located up to 50 meters separated from computers. That separation between protector and electronics means even better protection. Then to make protection even better, second, they upgrade the single point earth ground.

As the NIST says:
> A very important point to keep in mind is that your surge protector will
> work by diverting the surges to ground. The best surge protection in the
> world can be useless if grounding is not done properly.

A 'whole house' protector has that ‘always required’ low impedance (not low resistance) connection to earth. A plug-in protector obviously does not. Just another reason why telcos do not waste money on plug-in protectors. Just another reason why facilities that need to stop surge damage from lightning, instead, upgrade the earthing. Such as Orange County FL did to eliminate surge damage to emergency response facilities. Again, it will not let me post properly:
Triple w dot psihq dot com slash AllCopper dot htm

Any protector that works by opening a switch (ie double pole breaker) provides no protection. Critical to surge protection is how that 'whole house' protector connects to earth. Again, the expression is 'low impedance'. That means a wire that is as short as possible (ie 'less than 10 feet'). No sharp wire bends. No splices. That grounding wire must be separated from all other wires (just another reason why interior AC wires cannot provide earthing). All grounds (even from the telco installed for free 'whole house' protector and from the cable) must meet at the single point earth ground. Then the earthing system is typically upgraded or enlarged. After all, what provides surge protection from all surges - especially direct lightning strikes? Earth ground.

Either surge energy is *diverted* short and harmlessly into earth. Or that energy goes hunting for earth destructively inside the house. Either that energy is harmlessly absorbed in earth. Or that energy is destructively dissipated inside appliances. Surge protection means protection inside all appliances is not overwhelmed.

Which solution is better? Which solution also meets and exceeds post 1990 National Electrical code for earthing? Each surge protection layer is only as effective as its earth ground.

[Hawkwind]

Trying to make a warranty claim on a terminal strip from a lightening strike is almost a lost cause.

A friend of mine lost a room full of very expensive electronic test equipment do to a surge from a lightening strike miles away. He had every piece of equipment plugged into Tripp-Lite strips all around the room. There was not a cloud in the sky but you could hear lightening strikes way off in the distance. Then out of the blue. POW, he said it sounded as if someone had tossed a very large firecracker into the room. Then you had the smell of burnt electrical components.

He tried to make a claim with Tripp-Lite and was turned down over and over again on loop holes. He had every bill for every piece of equipment that was lost. After trying to fight it for months he just gave up and filed an insurance claim on his homeowners policy.

Funny thing is that in another room of the house he father had over ten thousand dollars of ham radio equipment that was not effected by the serge. Not one piece of electronic anywhere else in the house was effected. The only things that were lost were those items plugged into the Tripp-Lite strips.

[tamike]

We just had a neighbor who had SECO surge protection and a surge took their A/C out. SECO disallowed the claim as they said it was not covered due to a technicality " direct lightening strikes not covered". They did not have a direct strike. They are fighting this now.
I had an independent licensed electical contractor put mine in. It is a Square D/Schneider system that has no exclusions of this kind in writing. Hope I never have to put in a claim but if I do I hope I have coverage.