Power surges happen more often than you think and usually last only a second. In that second, though, a lot of damage can happen if your home isn’t protected with a whole-home surge protector. In our most recent blog, the electricians at A+ Heating & Cooling – Electrical discuss how a little box near your circuit breaker can protect all of the electronics in your home.
How Does A Whole Home Surge Protector Work?
Electrical surges often happen during storms due to lightning strikes. Before hurricane season starts, make sure your home is protected with a whole house surge protector. Call the electrical pros at A+ Heating& Cooling – Electrical to have one installed today.
The electricity that comes into your home does not always flow consistently. Extreme weather like thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornados, and high winds can cause damage to power transformers. Faults or fires in the main transformers or generating equipment can cause a disruption in your power supply, and when the power comes back on, there is often a surge.
A surge protector recognizes there is a spike in the power supply and instantly diverts the excess voltage into the ground wire. As voltage levels return to normal, the flow of electricity is restored.
What is a Whole House Surge Protector?
You might be familiar with surge protectors that come on power strips. Those surge protectors will only protect the items plugged into them. But if you’re worried about power surges affecting more than one outlet in your house, it’s best to get a whole house surge protector. It is a very affordable layer of protection that can be installed by a professional electrician. There are two kinds of whole home surge protectors, and they work in different ways.
Type 1
Type 1 devices offer the highest level of protection from external sources or internal power surges. These devices are installed where the supply from the utility company meets the main breaker, what’s determined as the “line side.” The whole house surge protector will only allow safe levels of power to make it into your home.
Type 2
Type 2 surge protectors are more popular. These whole house surge protectors can be installed at an individual circuit or all the circuits within a panel, plus subsidiary panels downstream from it.
It’s not a bad idea to have a few levels of surge protection in your home in case of a dysfunction down the line.
Why Do I Need a Whole House Surge Protector?
Whole-house surge protectors aren’t just a smart idea, but they are required by recent building code mandates. So if your home doesn’t have one, you may not be up to code. Surge protectors are affordable to install, and the protection they provide is invaluable.
If an electrical surge occurs and you do not have a whole house surge protector, the extra voltage can follow any wire into a house, which includes phone and cable lines. The surge can fry circuit boards within your electronics, including appliances such as air conditioners and computers. If you don’t want to pay to have all these items fixed or replaced after a power surge, then you’ll want to get a whole house surge protector installed right away.
Call A+ Heating & Cooling – Electrical to Protect Your Home Today
When the power goes out during a storm or a hurricane, you want to make sure your appliances and electronics aren’t damaged by a surge of electricity when the power comes back. A+ Heating & Cooling – Electrical has a team of experienced electricians on staff to install whole house surge protectors, garbage disposals, EV car charging stations, and more! Call us today to see if your whole house surge protector is in working order, and if it’s not, we can schedule an appointment for whole house surge protector installation.