It’s a feeling that’s all too familiar, especially if you live in storm-prone Florida—the dread as a storm approaches that a power surge might take out your computer and other electronic devices.
While you could always go around unplugging everything in your house whenever there’s a storm, that gets pretty time-consuming and inconvenient pretty fast. In addition, power surges can affect things you can’t just unplug, such as lighting systems and thermostats.
Furthermore, lightning is far from the only cause of power surges that can damage your electronic devices. The vast majority of power surges are caused by other things.
What Happens in a Power Surge?
If you’re picturing a power surge as a strong bolt of electricity traveling back down through your wiring and into your electronic devices, you are not too far off the mark. You have probably seen voltage requirements listed for some of your devices, usually ranging from 110-220 volts.
A “power surge” describes a situation in which your devices get a higher dose of voltage than they are supposed to. Even if this surge does not immediately harm your electronics, it can wear them down over time. In a worst case scenario, a power surge could lead to a fire.
What Are Other Causes of Power Surges?
When your power goes out, whether it’s because of a lightning strike or some other issue, there can be a power surge at the moment that it’s restored. Old or faulty wiring can also cause power surges.
Have you plugged too many things into one power strip and tripped a circuit? Both short circuits and tripped circuit breakers can result in a power surge. Finally, just the regular cycling on and off of appliances can also create a power surge.
You may be surprised to learn that on average, power surges happen well over a dozen times per day in Florida homes, lightning or no lightning. That’s a lot of chances to be taking with your expensive and often delicate electronic equipment.
How Can You Protect Your Home From Power Surges?
The best way to protect your home from power surges is with a home surge protector. These offer much more robust protection than any kind of portable surge protector.
A home surge protector can safeguard all of your devices, not just the ones that are plugged into a surge protector. In addition, they offer greater protection against large surges.
How important is a whole home surge protector? It’s important enough that in Florida, these are now required for newly built homes. If your home is older, you are not required to install one to stay up to code, but a whole home surge protector is still an excellent investment.
If you work from home, have smart devices or have someone in your household who is dependent on electronic medical equipment, a home surge protector may be particularly crucial to ensure that none of those things are damaged by a power surge.
It’s important to understand that while home surge protection can protect your devices against a power surge caused by a lightning strike, there is no surge protector on the market that can protect against a direct lightning strike. Fortunately, this is a rare occurrence.
What Kind of Whole Home Surge Protector Do You Need?
There are a few different types of whole home surge protectors. Choosing the right one for your home involves looking at several criteria. This includes what kind of devices you have in your home and how many there are as well as what the overall electrical capacity is in your house.
A surge protector’s joule rating refers to just how much of a surge it can handle. Although the price of a surge protector rises along with the joule rating, that higher rating means greater protection for your most sensitive and expensive electronics.
Another factor in choosing surge protection for your whole home is response time. An electrician can help you determine what type of home surge protector is right for your situation.
Whole home surge protection may cost more than portable protectors that you can plug your devices into, but it offers far more security. And it’s substantially less expensive than replacing devices that have been destroyed by a power surge.
Contact Mister Sparky for Home Surge Protection
At Mister Sparky, we’ve got the expertise you need to choose and install surge protection in your Florida home today. This is an investment that guarantees your peace of mind because you’ll know that you never have to worry again that a bad storm or any other kind of power surge can destroy your electronic equipment.
We also offer ongoing maintenance to make sure that your home surge protector keeps working as well as it did the day that we installed it. Don’t put up with any malarky, call Mister Sparky! Contact us today for all of your electricity and home surge protection needs.
