Did you know the average home experiences about 20 small power surges every day? The bigger appliances in your home such as HVAC units send small power surges to the electrical panel several times a day, resulting in 60-80% of the blame for the power surges within your home. While it doesn’t cause any major damage right away, over time this causes the appliance to wear out and puts excess stress on the home’s electrical system. Nearly 20,000,000 cloud to ground lightning strikes occur each year in the U.S. According to the Insurance Information Institute, in 2016 more than $825,000,000 was paid out in insurance claims due to home losses caused by lightning. That was over 100,000 homes affected in 2016 alone! Over 50% of those claims were directly related to damage caused by electrical surges that damaged appliances, components and wiring! The good news about these unfortunate statistics is there’s an affordable way you can protect your home from electrical surges and protect your investments. Peterkin Electric works diligently to serve all our customer’s electrical needs, installing whole house surge protectors is one way we serve that need here in Southern California.
Whole House Surge Protector VS Individual Surge Protectors
Whole home surge protectors (SPDs) are installed directly to your home’s electrical box and cost homeowners and average of $200-$500 to have installed. Similar to surge protector strips, SPDs operate on metal oxide varistors (MOVs) to block power surges before they can reach electronics or appliances. Some people believe their investments are protected simply by installing one of these strips, this is not the case. After just one surge, these strips are rendered useless and have to be replaced. Whole home surge protectors offer you reliability surge after surge for years to come. Many new homebuilders are offering whole-house surge protection as a part of their building packages nowadays as a way to protect buyer’s investments. Smart homes are especially at risk, when surges happen, valuable components are at risk of becoming fried. Many of today’s homes have appliances that are run on circuit boards, washers, dryers even lighting with LED’s making them weak to power surges. By layering your surge protection with an SPD and surge protector strips throughout the home, you can ensure all of the data on your electronics as well as your appliances and other smart home technology are safe from surges. Electricity follows the path of least resistance to the ground. An SPD will redirect any harmful currents safety to the ground before it causes any damage to your home’s power supply, appliances, electronics or blacks out power to your home. You should ensure your home’s ground system is secure with the help of a certified and experienced electrician. SPD’s will protect your home against power surges from power surges caused by issues within or outside your home! Because the installation of an SPD requires working with live electrical systems, you must employ a certified electrician to install it for you. This is not a DIY project.
What Creates a Power Surge?
– Downed power lines
– Lightning
– Major appliances
– Faulty wiring (Have you had your home’s electrical systems safety inspected?)
– High electrical demands in extreme weather
– Issues with electrical equipment
Electrical Inspections, Repairs, Maintenance & More in Laguna Woods, Santa Ana, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Aliso Viejo, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Irvine, Lake Forest & Orange County, California
Peterkin Electric offers full service electrical services to all of our customers. We can inspect your home’s grounding system as well as install a whole home surge protector in just a few hours! Protect your home and your assets with whole home surge protection! Give our office a call if you have further questions about SPD’s and would like to schedule your home’s SPD!