Whole house surge protection
 

We have our design meeting in 2.5 weeks and we are making a spreadsheet of all the possibilities in the new build including all the information we have gained from the knowledgable people on TOTV. One question that we have not seen addressed is if we should get whole house surge protection at build or after market. Could you offer advice?

We did our after market through SECO (our electricity provider).

We had our surge protection installed by SECO after we closed. They have a couple of options - rent or buy. You will need to decide what will work best for you. Good luck with your design meeting!

Rona

My $.0295 worth - go with what SECO's offers:

Protect your equipment from lightning with SECO Energy's Surge Protection System

Bill :)

I agree with this Ohio boy once again.

I agree. If a surge protector takes a hit, it needs to be replaced. If you rent it from seco, they will replace it. If you buy one from seco or anyone else, you own it, and you will need to buy again.

Good info. Thank's..........

I got mine from SECO too. Easy install and peace of mind.

We all talk about the insurances for auto, car, sinkhole, home, cart, bike, etc, but for the $5.95 per month that SECO charges to "rent" a house surge protector that also includes power strips for tvs/computers, it seems like a pretty small peace of mind to me in the lightning capital.

Yep!

Thank you all for the recommendations and your kind reasoning. Thank you to Bill and Brillo for the SECO link. Cleared this little problem up....now on to the next. Gee, building is fun (wink, wink).

100% agree. I have had them installed in my last two homes and never regreted it, even though it never tripped. I had made the recommendation to have it installed in a training session I was giving, and one of my clients later told me that a month after my presentation, they had a power surge that fried half of the appliances in their home. Unfortunately they had not had the suppressor installed, which would have been a lot cheaper than the appliance replacement.

You're both welcome, bigallis and suzi!

Bill :)

You will be required to contact SECO 2 weeks prior to closing to establish your service account for electrical service. You can ask them to add the surge protector then. They did not ask me, I had to ask for the installation. They then give you the option of renting or buying the equipment. The rep also said additional plug in surge protectors would be delivered to the home address shortly after closing.

For more information on lightning and surge protection see the back issues of the POA Bulletins at POA4US.org and look for the Lightning Matters columns.