Frequent summer storms in Palm Springs, FL mean frequent lightning, which can result in power surges. These power surges can put your electronic devices and appliances at risk. Whole-home surge protection is a relatively inexpensive way to protect everything from your computer and home entertainment equipment to your microwave and dishwasher. If you have something that’s plugged into an outlet, it can be damaged by a power surge. Fortunately, it can also be protected with a whole-home surge protector. General Air Conditioning & Plumbing can install whole-home surge protectors in your house to keep your electronics and your entire electrical system safe.
What a Whole-Home Surge Protector Does
You’re probably familiar with the type of surge protectors that are included with some power strips. However, a power strip with surge protection only offers protection for whatever you have plugged into it. A whole-home surge protector offers much more powerful protection for your entire house.
It works by monitoring how much electrical current is going into your home. When it detects a spike in that current, it intercepts it and diverts it. The voltage travels along a ground wire and into the ground instead of into your house, where it can cause extensive damage.
More than just your electronic devices are at risk in a power surge. A major power surge can also damage the wiring throughout your home. This can be expensive to repair and hard to discover, leading to safety concerns. At worst, a power surge can lead to an electrical fire. A whole-home power surge protector can offer you peace of mind knowing that your home and possessions are safe.
Power Surges and Why They Happen
While power surges are a concern during summer storms, they can occur at many other times as well. Many people do not realize how common they are. They associate them with lightning strikes or perhaps the power returning after it’s been cut off. In fact, power surges often happen, and even if they don’t damage your possessions at first, they can over time. Your computer or microwave might just stop working one day after it has been subjected to numerous power surges over a few years that you didn’t notice. Once you understand how common power surges are, you have a better understanding of how vulnerable your electronic items are and why a whole-home surge protector is so important.
Downed power lines, blackouts, and issues with the power grid can all cause power surges. Power surges can even be caused by the normal activities of your appliances, such as your air conditioner cycling on and off. This is known as an “internal surge” and accounts for many of the minor power surges that happen regularly in a home.
You can also cause a power surge if you create an electrical overload by trying to plug too many things into one outlet. This could be the case if you’re using a power strip to try and make up for a lack of outlets. This can affect not just the devices that are plugged into the strip but the electrical system throughout your entire house. On top of that, people often confuse power strips with surge protectors. While some power strips do come with surge protection built in, this is not the case for all of them. And while a power strip with a surge protector can be a good type of supplemental protection, it can’t compare to what a whole-home surge protector can offer.
Whole-Home Surge Protection Installation
While having a whole-home surge protector installed is a job that generally takes just a few hours, it’s not a do-it-yourself endeavor. As is the case with most electrical jobs, an electrician should complete this process.
First, we will determine what kind of whole-home surge protector you need. This is based on several different factors, including what devices you want to protect, how big your house is, your budget, how many outlets you have, and the likelihood of surges in your area. In an area like Palm Springs, the likelihood of summer storms will be considered.
Whole-home surge protectors are usually attached to your electrical panel, although technically they can be placed anywhere between there and your meter. If there’s no room in your panel for the surge protector, we might have to replace the panel. Alternatively, it may be necessary to move or replace a breaker.
Once the surge protector is installed, we will make sure that it’s working correctly. We will also demonstrate to you how it works and how to check if it’s still operating. You can call us with any questions you have or to have your protector inspected.
Adding Extra Protection
There are a few things that even a whole-home surge protector can’t do. It can’t protect your house if lightning strikes it directly. Although it does protect against most power surges, it’s still possible for some to get through. No surge protector of any type can prevent 100% of power surges from affecting your electrical system. Fortunately, there is a fix for this issue.
For total protection, think of a whole-home surge protector as the first and most important defense against power surges. Then, to make your home even safer, consider using point-of-use surge protectors as well. This could include high-quality power strip surge protectors and outlets with built-in surge protection. In addition, for particularly sensitive electronics, you may want to consider an uninterruptible power supply. Keep in mind that all these point-of-use devices only offer limited protection unless they’re combined with a whole-home surge protector.
Care and Maintenance of Your Surge Protector
Even the best whole-home surge protector on the market won’t last indefinitely. In fact, as your surge protector does its job of absorbing electricity spikes, it slowly wears out. For this reason, it’s a good idea to have your whole-home surge protector regularly inspected and maintained, especially before each summer storm season hits.
With some whole-home surge protectors, there may not be an indicator to let you know that they have worn out. You can get models that either shut down automatically or that display a light when they are no longer capable of offering protection. Choosing one of these models can provide you with the confidence of knowing that your whole-home surge protector is still in good working order and that it will alert you when it needs repair or replacement.
Top Quality Protection From Power Surges
At General Air Conditioning & Plumbing, we have more than forty years of experience offering electrical services in the Palm Springs and Greater Coachella Valley area. We’ve won Nextdoor Neighborhood Fave Awards for several years in a row, and you can check out hundreds of five-star reviews on Google and our website to see comments from our many happy customers. All our expert electricians have background checks and drug tests so that you can feel safe about letting them into your home.
Nothing is more important to us than your satisfaction with our work. To have a whole-home surge protector installed during your electrical panel upgrade at your house and for other electrical services, contact General Air Conditioning & Plumbing today.
