What are electrical surges?
Surges and transients are momentary spikes in electrical voltage. These surges or transients can enter a home through the incoming electrical line, telephone line, and even the cable TV or internet line.
Where do they come from?
At one extreme, a surge can be generated by a nearby lightning strike. At the other, transients can come from the motors in your electrical appliances when they turn on and off during everyday operation. Harmful surges also are produced by electric utility power switching designed to meet changing energy demands.
What can they do?
While a lightning strike can cause immediate and severe damage, low level surges will, over time, degrade electronic components and shorten the life of computers, home entertainment systems, telecommunications devices and, increasingly, even kitchen and laundry appliances.
What can you do?
You can protect the investment in all of your electronic devices with a family of surge protectors. While surge strips protect one electronic device, there are many products that can protect all the connections in a home - and this is what Mr. Electric recommends. When whole-home devices are used in combination with surge strips, your electrical devices receive maximum protection.
How do surge protectors work?
Once in place and connected to your load center, telephone service or cable service, surge protectors redirect surges to ground and dissipate the energy. The surge protection selected must be UL rated on response time (where lower clamping voltage is better) and surge rating (where the greater the surge current rating, the longer the surge protector will last).
What surge protector is right for me?
Each type of surge protector focuses on a particular type of wiring: electrical, telephone or coaxial cable. There are two AC power surge protectors, allowing you protection regardless of the brand of load center in your home. Ask your local Mr. Electric what type of protection is right for you and your home.
Note: While surge protectors will protect against surges generated when lightning strikes nearby, no surge arrester can guard against a direct hit. The energy is too great.
