Surge Protection
 

My electric co. Seco offers a surge protector that installs behind my meter for a charge of $5.95 per month. Do many here have one of these devices and being new in TV what do you think of these surge protectors?

Yes, I have one at my home there and at my full - time home in the panhandle. With the lightning, storms, & power surges, I highly recommend.

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You MUST back this up with device end of line surge protectors. SECO requires this.


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During construction, I had a whole-house surge protector installed. An insurance policy. No monthly fee.

Whole house surge protectors protect things like motors and compressors. So they protect things like washing machine and refrigerators.

Whole house surge protectors, in general, don't protect electronics. When lightning strikes a house or even just nearby it induces high voltages in the house wiring itself. So you need a surge protector on each piece of electronics plug and on each network cable near where it goes into the electronics.

Even if you completely disconnected the main electronic line going into your house if lightning strikes nearby it will induce a voltage surge into all of your house wiring and network cables. The voltage surge it induces probably won't hurt a motor or compressor but it can easily destroy electronics.

You might check the insurance policy and see exactly what it will pay off on. If it really covers all the electronics in your house for replacement cost you got a really good deal.

Here is what one whole house surge protector sold by Home Depot says about electronics:

"Square D brand Home Electronics Protective Devices (HEPDs) are compact and affordable surge suppressors designed for residential load centers. HEPDs work together with surge protection plug strips to provide surge suppression for sensitive electronics. HEPDs reduce surges that might otherwise overwhelm plug strips and damage connected household equipment. HEPDs also provide surge suppression for important items such as washers, dryers, refrigerators, stoves, and air conditioning that plug strips may not or cannot protect."

yep

I have never had one and would not spend money on it, especially every month. A surge protector will not protect against lightning. You would need a lightning protection system with lightning rods to do that. But, again, it would not be worth the money. Just my opinion. Your homeowners insurance will cover lightning damage to appliances. Use surge strips for electronics.

I am not an electrical expert, but, it seems to me that the new houses have small transformers located on the ground in every neighborhood and the wiring is installed underground to the houses. So, if the power company controls surges from the transformer (which they should), what good is another surge protector located behind your meter going to do? Maybe someone can explain it.

They dont require it. They suggest it because their program doesnt cover those appliaces

3 Homes in the Villages 3 seco surge protectors.
Lightning capital of the US Plus outages are common.
Don't forget to add single surge protection to you appliances computers phone garage door openers and irrigation controller.
One ground lightning strike can prove to be expensive
Been there done that

I think that the power company, SECO's, offer to rent you a surge protector for $5.95 per month to protect your major appliances is ridiculous. They are installing a meter on your house and charging you several hundred dollars per month for electrical power, but they admit that their service may damage your major appliances? So, if you don't want their service to damage your appliances, you need to pay them an additional $5.95 every month. That is like buying a car and paying extra for the brakes. Why don't they include the surge protection as part of the basic service? Doesn't everyone want their appliances to be protected? I think this is a ripoff and would never pay the extra amount, and I do not think it is needed.

Interesting. Years ago I heard a commercial on the radio in NJ about whole house surge suppressors (I wasn't familiar with them at the time). The electric company was suggesting that you install them, but they indicated that you did NOT need the additional surge suppressor power strips in the home as the suppressor on the main line into the house was meant to clamp down on a surge coming into the home. If there was a significant lightning strike on the lines immediately adjacent to the home, the suppressor on the home could be compromised and the surge suppressor power strips would do nothing for you as they could not handle such a load. I imagine that if the strike were that close, your home might have been struck and you could be worried about fire.

By the by, pretty much all appliances have electronics that could be compromised by an electric surge-it isn't just a compressor for example that could get damaged.

I have had professional electricians install whole house suppressors on the main line entering each of my last three homes, and all three electricians said the same thing as the power company regarding the need for the power strips. I did not rent the suppressor from SECO, but bought one and had it installed in my home here in Florida.

You have a choice of purchasing the surge protector from them, or renting it at $5.95 (approx) a month. With the system, whether you purchase or rent, comes an assortment of surge protectors for your electronics as additional protection.

For $5.95 per month, your appliances and electronic gear is fully protected and guaranteed to be protected!

That is the cost of a drink at a country club (not happy hour!).

Mighty cheap insurance policy for the lightning strike center of the USA.

Or - self insure yourself with the hope it will happen to someone else.

Me? My house came with the "lightning rods" as well as the SECO surge protectors. I feel pretty safe!

I am a retired professional electrical engineer, with 40 years utility experience, here is my humble opinion:

First, there is nothing you can install in or on your home to protect from a DIRECT STRIKE. Lightning protection systems will limit the possibility of a fire, but will do very little for the surge associated with the DIRECT STRIKE. Utilities have equipment that will handle several thousand volts of surge, and device to clamp the surges to much lower levels so their expensive equipment is not damaged.

Second, surge protection is useful for the INDIRECT strike, this is the one that hits nearby, and creates a surge on the incoming power lines. Examples include strikes to the overhead lines outside TV, strives to power poles, street lights, etc, and strikes to trees or buildings close by.

Third, It is very possible to get a potential difference (aka surge) between the cable, the power lines, and any other wiring leaving your house to the outside (landscape lighting, etc.), each of these will have its own 'ground reference', and a nearby strike will effect all of these differently. Local surge suppressors in your house will provide some level of protection for these.

Lastly, if you are really concerned, be sure the surge suppressors are UL listed as SURGE suppressors, there are several companies selling these multiple socket cords as "surge" suppressors when the UL tag is for an EXTENSION CORD.

I hope this helps, and will be glad to provide additional information if requested.

PS, I have the SECO surge suppressor on our house, along with several smaller device inside the house.

:super:

The only guy I listen to.

Surge Protection
 

Smart person - both of you.





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The SECO website has a detailed warranty written in legalese. Some things in it are:
It only covers lightning strikes that travel through the transformer and into the house through the SECO wiring. So, apparently, if the lightning strikes between the transformer and your house, you are not covered.
It does not cover electronics, only large appliances, such as washers, dryers, etc.
It only covers fair market value of the appliance, not replacement cost (how much is a used washer worth?)
It only covers what is not covered by your homeowners insurance (the deductible?)
The equipment manufacturer must determine that their equipment failed and caused damage to your appliance.
Very restrictive warranty. I don't think they expect to pay a lot of claims.

Retiredguy123, I agree with your statements, this is why I have several UL rated surge suppressors. Also, there was a previous thread (I think) about the failure to cover a claim for a refrigerator where the utility claimed the surge came in through the water line. I do not recall the details, but, yes I agree probably not a lot of claims paid.

I am a retired electrical contractor, I have a surge protector that plugs into my panel , it takes the place of a two pole circuit breaker and a white wire connects to the neutral bar-very simple installation--I have seen a panel door blown open, the SECO, crew who came to my house said--my unit gave me the same protection as their's--bought mine @ Home Depot comes with a $25K policy

Thanks
 

You answered the question the way I would ask it. What have you done.

What is your suggestion re: lightening rods? If, I've followed all the posted information, attracting the lightening. We are about 1/4 mile form one of the water towers; probably the highest thing in the villages. I would assume it is regularly hit with lightening.
to a rod and directing it to a ground would create surges.

I've seen the argument stating you really do not need lightning protection or whole house surge protection ( in the lightning capital of the USA ) because you have Homeowners insurance. Keep in mind every Homeowners policy will have a deductible and you will have to go though the claim process which is guaranteed not to lower your stress level. If I can avoid having to deal with damage to both my home and personal possessions by spending some money up front, to me it is a worthwhile investment. With that said, I had both a whole house surge protector and a lightning protection system installed in/on my house. Not an insignificant amount of money, but some significant peace of mind.

another real problem if a close neighbor has lightning protection, his hit will go to the ground, which may affect you

There is a lot for me to consider about this surge protection. I'm going to think about this before I do anything. Thanks to all for your input.

More important than surge protection, is for a house with natural gas --is to make sure the flexible tubing used for gas is properly grounded and bonded

We have the same at our home in Apollo Beach. We had the TECO supplied surge protector at the meter for $7.95 / month. We had it removed soon after the whole house surge protector was installed at our breaker panel. I confirmed with the electrician that the rented protector was not necessary.

There have been past threads on this topic, try a search for more info, and probably some misinfo.
I have seen The Villages install lightning protection on many of their buildings. These systems do provide some level of protection for a direct lightning strike, however, they provide limited SURGE protection for stuff inside the house. So depending on what and how you trying to provide protection, you can determine if you need a whole house lightning protection system, or simply good surge protection.

There many arguments on both sides of the lightning protection system, so you are on the right track to get as much info as you can. One other idea I had, call your insurance company, and see what they say.

Hope this helps.

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TECO is the gas company.;)

All lightning strikes go into the ground regardless of if you have protection or not.

In Apollo Beach, teco is also the electric company.