Sometimes the best measures to take are preventative ones, especially when it comes to electrical wiring in your home. We are talking specifically about protecting your home and devices from power surges. Many people are familiar with surge protectors that plug into an outlet to protect computers or electronic devices, but did you know that there are whole house surge protectors?

Do I Need A Whole House Surge Protector?

Whole house surge protectors can be installed into your home to protect it and all of your power-using devices. They are needed to prevent damage from large bursts of energy that can blast unexpectedly through the power lines into your house. These surges can occur for several reasons — lightning strikes to power lines are perhaps the most dangerous. They also carry the most voltage and can do the most damage. A lightning strike can occur less than a two kilometers from your home to do damage, but they are not the most common source of power surges.

More commonly, the cause of power surges are things like sudden changes in energy use from nearby factories or other power sucking sources. Other causes are power lines that have been downed or have experienced sudden damage, or even the cycling of power usage of high energy usage devices like air conditioners, refrigerators or other appliances.

Whole House Surge Protectors Defend Against Hazards

A whole house surge protector is your best shield of defence against this kind of unpredictable hazard. They act as a sort of pressure relief valve. Most of the time they sit there as a normal conduit through which energy can flow into your home. But when a power surge comes through the power lines and discharges into your electrical system, the whole house surge protector will divert excess power to the home’s ground wire. When the surge has ended (in usually well under one second), the flow of energy returns to normal.

Be Sure To Use A Qualified Electrician For The Job

A qualified electrician can hard wire a whole house surge protectors into the service panel into your home in just a couple of hours. They should be manufactured to stop, at minimum, a 40,000-amp surge. If you truly want to protect your devices, whole house surge protectors should also be used in conjunction with the more familiar plug-in protectors, since about 15 percent of voltage from a large surge can still get through.

Therefore, plug-in surge protectors should still be used in your home for important and expensive things like home entertainment systems and electronics like computers. These come in a wide range of options from your local hardware store — from a simple power strip to multi purpose ones that can handle phone lines to ones that are big enough to handle a large entertainment system.

Taking this multi step approach is important is protecting your home and your devices, including appliances, from the potential damage of energy surges. These events are unpredictable and it can sometimes take a while for your devices to show signs that they have been damaged due to a massive jolt of energy. One day your microwave might stop working and it could be because of past damage due to an energy surge.

Whole House Surge Protectors Save You Money

This kind of protection can save you a lot of money in the long run. Without a whole house surge protector, you run the risk of exposing your plugged in gadgets to high voltages that could fry them, rendering them inoperable. If that happens, not only will you have to call in an electrician to assess and fix the damage, you will need to replace your damaged goods.

If you are in the Surrey, Langley, White Rock, South Surrey areas and are curious about how to protect your home from power surges, give us a call. At BPM Electric, our experienced, professional electricians can diagnose how vulnerable your home is. We offer affordable, reliable services, including installation of whole house surge protectors.

Power surges are out of your hands, but what you can do is protect you, your family and your home from the effects of a high voltage jolt through your home. Give us a call today to ensure that your home is safe.