Whole house surge suppressors??

[mrzoom]

Had a bad storm here last night with constant lightning. I started to wonder if I needed a full surge protector for the house.

What brand etc. do you have? Did it ever "save" the stuff in your house?? Do they reset or do you replace?

I probly ought to get that battery back up sump pump we talked about a month ago too.

[Calvin (no socks)]

Rich, I have a bunch of trees outside... Natural surge suppression....Just hit one last week... blew a 6" strip out of it 40' to the ground... the blast of debris smashed out the glass in the back of the garage and scared the dogs to death...still have the debris laid out on the grass...dunno if a surge suppressor could have handled that...

[Jerry Johnston]

I have a customer who put one on his lake property. I'll email his address to you and you can ask him questions directly.

[bakerzdosen]

Keep in mind that a whole house surge suppressor won't help your delicate equipment from in-house-generated surges (eg from a vacuum or A/C unit.)

 

 

 

[Ken H.]

Personal opinion, and a far amount of electrical engineering experience - save your money. Or spend it on better insurance.

 

Air is one of the best insulators known to man and lighting will travel though seven miles of that. Nothing you can add to your house will stop it if the electrons happen to be aligned against you at that moment.

[Jerry Johnston]

Except a lightning rod to draw it away to the ground.

[Ken H.]

Except a lightning rod to draw it away to the ground.

 

Naw. I've seen many a house with blown up stuff that had lightning rods galore.

 

In fact one line of thought is that by creating a big old ground plane up in the air on top of your house you're more likely to get hit. It becomes the best path to ground around.

[Mark K]

I believe in single purpose surge suppressors for sensitive equipment, but whole-house............not so much.

[Mark K]

....one line of thought is that by creating a big old ground plane up in the air on top of your house you're more likely to get hit. It becomes the best path to ground around.

 

 

Agreed.

[Jerry Johnston]

Except a lightning rod to draw it away to the ground.

 

Naw. I've seen many a house with blown up stuff that had lightning rods galore.

 

In fact one line of thought is that by creating a big old ground plane up in the air on top of your house you're more likely to get hit. It becomes the best path to ground around.

Well, then you help your neighbor put one up on his house to draw the lightning farther away.