Lightning
 

Learning that we are in the lightning capital of the US. Considering some sort of whole house surge protector and from lightning strikes. .
Seco Energy has what they call a surge mitigator at a rather expensive cost but it only protects against surges and no help to electronics or apparently from lightning.
Have now heard of whole house surge protectors but having a problem finding out info.
Any suggestions on how to protect our entire home from surge protectors and lightning strikes?
Thanks so much for your help.

You have several options:

1) The"Surge MitiGator" that SECO (and only SECO) installs on your meter. You can buy it outright, or pay installments. We've had one on our house for the past six years.

2) Have an electrician install a Whole House Surge Protector, which installs in or near your breaker panel.

3) Install "point of use" surge protectors on television sets, electronics, computers, where you want some form of surge protection.

Regardless of which route you take, option 3 is not a bad idea (even if you have option 1 or 2).

Hope this helps. I'm sure many "experts" will eventually weigh in with pro's and con's.

Despite many strong storms, with abundant lightning, we've not sustained any damage (fingers crossed) to any electronics in our home. Of course it's probably next to impossible if this is from luck, or having the Surge MitiGator installed.

A whole house surge protector is not designed to protect your house against lightning. To do that, you would need a lightning protection system that would include lightning rods on your roof connected to a cable system that would channel a lightning strike through the cables and into the ground. I don't believe that either a whole house surge protector or a lightning protection system are worth buying. The best way to protect electronics is with local surge protectors near the electronics. Also, your homeowners insurance will cover damage due to an electrical surge or lightning.

IMHO, get the SECO unit ($6/month), it comes with several smaller units to use inside for electronics. If you do not get enough, you can go to any of the big box stores and buy additional ones (make sure these are UL listed for SURGE protection and not as an extension cord). From first hand experience, we had a close in strike (heard it, saw it, felt it all at the same instant), it did several thousand dollars in damages to the neighbors, no apparent dame at ours, SEDO unit installed.

Thanks all.

So apparently there is no easy way to protect our electronics from lightning other than unplugging when not in use.

Is this correct?

I bought a 2 pole GE whole house surge protector, installed in my breaker box, will do the exact same thing that the SECO unit does, was told by SECO employees its basically the same thing they use

If I could also ask this about lightning, how do the folks who have installed an outdoor TV antenna, sitting on top of a 20 foot high metal pole, prevent a lightning strike from following the cable right into the house?

In The Villages?

There’s the options listed above. Plain and simple. Is there a 100% solution. No.

We have a whole house surge protector (bought at Home Depot and installed by brother in law) installed at electric box. Our neighbor on one side had the same. When we were hit by ground lightning we had to just flip the circuit breakers back on. Neighbor on the other side that had no surge protection lost his garage door opener and a couple of other electrical appliances.

In many places.

We had The Village install a whole-house protector during construction. It's not going to protect against a direct hit, but will help surges. Talk to an electrical contractor.

Lightning versus surge
 

First off, I am no expert on this subject and will talk in general terms as to be honest I forget our details at the moment. IMO surge protection and protection from direct lighting strikes are two different technologies.

We put in "whole house" surge protection from SECO and then have individual surge protectors on our "high value" items, computers, TV, etc. Most also came from SECO or our lightning "guy".

In addition we had lighting protection installed on the roof. Sad to say I forget the name of the company, there are at a few reputable companies around TV. I am sure there are threads around on TOTV if you are interested, search for lightning.

Does lightning protection work? Some argue it does not, some smart people say it does, I will only know for sure if my house gets struck. It gives us some comfort for the price...

If a neighbor tells you that his house is now safe because all lightning goes to my "rods", be nice and make sure he has access to google to search a bit on that :)

I have a whole house surge protector, installed by Galaxy out of Wildwood. Met the owner, and his son put in the ethernet outlets and cables throughout the house during construction as a subcontractor. Was $500 or so but I wasn't in the house and its a rental right now, so it was cheap insurance. I forget the brand, but its not the SECO model, its a bit higher end . . . I would recommend it as cheap insurance amortized over the next 10 years, discounted rate of 1%, for a IRR of peace of mind. . . .