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.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

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


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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.