3 Types of Surge Protection for Your Home

When it comes to electrical surges, many homeowners think of the errant lightning bolt that hits a wire and sends a surge into the home. The truth is that you are far more likely to sustain damage from an electrical surge coming through your home’s wires from an aberration with the main utility than a lightning strike (although lightning can certainly cause a surge). This lack of information leads to a lot of homeowners not properly protecting their home’s electrical system, appliances and electronics. In fact, the average liability claim for damage caused by an electrical surge is $4300 – not exactly small change. But you can protect your home and your belongings by having the right surge protection, as we’ll explain more about below.

The Categories

There are three types of surge protection you can employ in your home:

• Type 1 – a type 1 surge protector is a whole home protector. It is a mechanism installed on the main electrical line coming into your home, and it is installed in front of your home’s electrical meter. When a surge occurs, a type 1 protector re-directs the surge to a ground that is part of the unit so that the excess electricity can be discharged safely and away from your home.
• Type 2 – this is also a whole home surge protector, but it is placed just after the electrical meter in your home. As with a Type 1 protector, a type 2 protector re-directs a surge to a safe ground before it can enter your electrical panel and your home’s electrical system. However, it won’t protect the meter.
• Type 3 – a type 3 surge protector is the simple surge-protection plug-in strip you can buy in a home goods or electronics store. This type of surge protector will turn off when it senses a surge, protecting what is plugged into it, but the surge has entered your home’s electrical system and can do damage to the system and anything else plugged into it.

The electrical experts at Bell Plumbing and Heating can help you protect your home in Denver, CO from electrical surges – just give us a call!