Originally Posted by quiltingnana1
We use surge protectors for various appliances. We also have a "whole house" protector.
Now for numbers. IEEE makes all recommendations in standards. From the IEEE Green Book (IEEE Standard 142) entitled 'Static and Lightning Protection Grounding':
> Lightning cannot be prevented; it can only be intercepted or diverted to a path
> which will, if well designed and constructed, not result in damage. Even this means is not
> positive, providing only 99.5-99.9% protection. ...
> Still, a 99.5% protection level will reduce the incidence of direct strokes from one stroke per
> 30 years ... to one stroke per 6000 years ...
A properly earthed 'whole house' protector only does 99.5% of the protection at about $1 per protected appliance. Then spend 20 or 100 times more money for a plug-in protector to add maybe 0.2% protection. Why do I keep providing all the numbers? And so many others in denial post no numbers?
One 'whole house' protector is 99.5%. Then spend masssively for plug-in protectors that do maybe 0.2% only because one 'feels' a million people are not scammed. Nonsense. Your one 'whole house' protector (properly earthed) even protects plug-in protectors - see scary pictures.
How does an informed homeowner make a protection system better? Upgrade the single point earth ground. Spend no money on plug-in protectors. It was that simple even 100 years ago. Because a protector for any harmful surge is only as effective as its earth ground.