Any electricians? whole home surge protectors

[blastncast2]

Anyone familiar with whole home surge protectors? Whats a good brand, are they worth it? I'm looking at SquareD, Leviton, Eaton, and Sycom brands. Seems like a cheap investment for a house during power surges.

 

[dougstump]

We had a dog & pony show at work from Maxi Volt (Gene Sims. JR. owner 225-610-6442). It looks like a good system and can be used for a house, however we haven't bought any yet so I can't verify performance.

While we’re on the subject of voltage surges, if you suspect your house has taken a lightening strike turn each circuit breaker off one at a time and be sure that circuit goes dead. Don’t just trip the breaker and think it’s off, go make sure the power is off on that branch circuit. I have seen several times where lightening can weld the circuit breaker contacts closed and the breaker will never trip. I’ve know of a couple of houses that burned down from an overload years after the lightening strike and the Fire Department determined the cause was the circuit breaker didn’t trip. Oh, if it’s a 220 volt (double breaker) like for your range or water heater, it’s best to check with a meter to be sure both legs are dead. But don’t open up the panel unless you really know what you are doing!

 

[Jack]

http://www.ditekcorp.com/

I have friends at convergent technologies that swear by them and I've met their head of product support at a few trade shows, guy is a genius. Also, the vast majority of their products are made in the USA

 

[blastncast2]

Good advice doug and thanks Jack. I'll check them out.

 

[Jack]

Good advice doug and thanks Jack. I'll check them out.

Yeah I figure if that is what they are using on quarter of a million dollar camera systems it should work pretty well.