Hurricane Sandy Power Restoration Could Cause Damage to Equipment

For the millions of East Coast residents that are waiting for their power to be restored post hurricane Sandy they may find out that their electronics and other electrically connected devices are damaged when the lights come back on. Imagine the rush of water through a hose when it is first turned on. This is what happens when power is restored. This rush is what causes the damage to your sensitive electronic devices. 

Homeowners should consider unplugging sensitive devices and making sure that other equipment is turned to the "off" position or possibly tripping breakers that power specific equipment in their home to the "off" position until after the power has been fully restored. Leave a few  household light switches in the "on" position to indicate when the power has been restored. Only when you are confident that the utility workers have finished working in your area should you then plug in and power your more sensitive devices. During mass grid failures like this the power might be restored temporarily only for it to go off again soon after to correct an underlying grid problem that causes another failure. 

Consider whole home surge protection as a cost effective solution to prevent power surge damage to your electrical equipment. 

Surge Protector Haikus

My idiot box fried

How will i watch my shows now?
Need surge protection

Lights flicker quickly
I forgot surge protection
My Xbox is charred

Burst of lightning zap
All around me now darkness
Regret for fried stuff

Neighbor calls frantic
They have lost many devices
Not surge protected

Power surge problem
Electrician solution
Installs whole home surge

Brand new computer
Bought myself surge protection
Confident 'tis safe

New fridge is damaged
Surge protection is cheaper
Expensive lesson

Home Office Surge Protection

Home Office Surge Protection

How do I protect my home office equipment from surges?

Many of today’s small businesses are run from home offices. When your livelihood depends on your home office equipment running smoothly protecting it from surge damage is a wise investment. Even if you do not own a small business the home office is generally a command center for paying bills and children completing school work. Avoid the nuisance of equipment damage. Protect your home office equipment by preventing surge damage with surgeassure^TM Home Office Surge Protection. 

To fully protect your Home Office surgeassure^TM has created the Main and Interior Zone – Home Office surge protection package. The Home Office surge protection package includes: 

(a) Main Zone surge protection products (TE/1C40, SAT1, & SAVFFF) 

(b) Four Single outlet surge protectors (SAP1) for protecting appliances and additional Home Office equipment 

(c) Plug Strip surge protector (SAS8T2V2) for equipment such as fax machines telephones, printers/copiers & scanners 

(d) UPS (SA550VA) Uninterruptible Power Supply – perfect for your computer PC and monitor 

Installing a Whole Home Surge Protector

TE/1C40 Whole Home panel surge protector

If you are familiar with basic electrical wiring then installing a Whole home panel surge protector is a relatively simple task. But, be warned that most product warranties, like the surgeassure™ product warranty, require that a qualified electrician install the product for the warranty to be valid. These tips are intended for qualified electricians. 

Surge protector installation diagram

Installation of whole home surge protectors require a breaker to connect to the electrical system. For the TE/1C40 whole home panel surge protector a 20A, 2-pole breaker is required because the product is prewired with a #12AWG. Conductors must be matched to an appropriate breaker size. Frequently people ask do I need to install this in a breaker slot positioned at the top of the breaker box? The answer is no. Install the p
rotector on a 2-pole breaker at any point within the breaker box but make sure that breaker position is in close proximity to the knockout that connects the surge protector to the breaker box in order to maintain short and straight leads. Long lead lengths increase the let through voltage of the surge protector which affects its performance. 
  

TE/1C40 surge protector wiring

For complete and detailed instructions on installing the TE/1C40 check out its installation manual.

Lightning Safety Awareness Week

NOAA's annual Lightning Safety Awareness week started yesterday. Its held at the onset of the summer storm season to help people prepare. Its a great time to review not only personal lightning safety but how to protect your home. The IEEE surge protection guide helps you do just that. 


For more information on surge protection visit our website.

Lightning claim averages on the rise again

According to the Insurance Information Institute ( I.I.I.), there were more than 186,000 lightning claims in 2011. This resulted in a decrease of 13% from 2010 claims however, the average lightning claim was $5,112 , up 5.5% from 2010. So the reported claims have decreased while the claim amounts have increased. I.I.I. further reports that the average cost per claim has risen 93% from 2004 through 2011, at the same time that the actual number of paid claims fell by over 33 percent over that time frame. They speculate that an increased use of lightning protection systems has resulted in the decrease in claims.

From their Press Release: “The number of paid claims is down, but the average cost per claim continues to rise, in part because of the huge increase in the number and value of consumer electronics in homes,” said Loretta Worters, vice president of the I.I.I. “Plasma and high-definition television sets, home entertainment centers, multiple computer households, smart phones, gaming systems and other expensive devices—which can all be destroyed by power surges—continue to have a significant impact on claims losses.”

The take away from these statistics is to prevent increasingly costly damage in the 1st place and these claims will continue to decline.



Learn more about whole home surge protection.

Surge Protection references

There are a number of third party organization references for surge protection information. For instance APT (parent company of surgeassure) is a NEMA member and NEMA has a website devoted to surge protection, NEMASURGE.


Other sites for surge references include:
State Farm
NIST "Surge Happens"


There are also a number of lightning related sites such as: 
Environment Canada
National Weather Service
National Lightning Safety Institute
Insurance Information Institute

Daisy Chaining.....Don't do it!!!

I've said this before in another post but it bears repeating. Don't daisy chain surge protectors or plug extension cords into surge protectors. Don't do it.


Way too many people making the mistake of daisy chaining and then experiencing an electrical fire. 


Check out this guys question on Ask, Should I replace this surge protector? The responder while not really answering the question properly did give him some practical advice; call an electrician.


The web is full of questions like these on forums. Without getting overly technical just know that surge protectors need to be plugged directly into a grounded receptacle in order to function. While it might be tempting to plug an extension cord into a surge protector to extend cord length don't do it. Cough up the money to have an electrician install a new outlet.   

Surge protector strips: grounded and protected indicator lights

Recently I was posed the questions: "Are both the RED and GREEN indicator light supposed to be on at the same time?" and "What is the difference between  the Grounded and Protected indicator lights?" 


The green grounded light and the red protected light on the plug-in protectors serve two 
different functions. 


The green light indicates that the receptacle has a ground reference. Grounding references are vital for surge protection because Ground is the exit pathway for the excess surge current. No Ground reference and your surge protector will not work. This is why surge protectors are not used on 2-prong outlets. Be mindful, some 3-pronged outlets may not have Ground tied to them and this will be evident when you plug-in the surge protector and the green light is not illuminated.

Ungrounded outlet

Grounded outlet

The red light indicates that the surge protection elements are working. If the red light extinguishes then the surge protector is no longer protecting your equipment. 


Our surge protectors are designed so that they shutdown when the surge protection elements have expired. Always be mindful of the "failure mode" of your surge protection. Some manufacturers products will continue to allow current to flow to your equipment after the surge protection elements have expired. So unless you notice an extinguished indicator light you won't know that your equipment is now unprotected.  

surgeassure SAP6T2V1

For more FAQ's check the website.

Surge protector, TVSS, surge arrestor, lightning suppressor; what is the difference???

There are a lot of terms thrown around in the electrical industry to describe a surge protector. These include TVSS (transient voltage surge suppressor), surge arrestor, lightning suppressor, and Surge Protective Device (SPD) among others. At one point some of these products had differences in installation and application usages but as of major industry changes in 2009 all of these terms have been abandoned by the surge protection industry in favor of the term Surge Protective Device. So while you may hear these terms still being used for under 1000 volt applications (like your home) they are all in fact "surge protective devices." 

For more information on surge protection check out the FAQ.

Surge Suppressor 

Won't my circuit breakers protect me from surges?

A common question we get from homeowners on the support line is why circuit breakers don't just trip when the surge occurs. The oversimplified non-engineer speak answer is that circuit breakers don’t react quickly enough to protect sensitive electronic equipment.  Surge protectors reacts in less that a billionth of a second, much faster than a breaker tripping and the surge even is over before the breaker knows that it occurred. 

It’s also important to note that Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) circuit breakers are not surge protectors and therefore do not provide surge protection, another misperception. They protect against shock hazard.

How long will a surge protector last?

Under normal operation, surge protectors operate indefinitely. Quality surge protectors are built to withstand multiple surge events. Keep in mind that every surge degrades the protection components.


surgeassure™ assesses a 10-year product warranty period for its' electrical panel mount protectors and for the Interior Zone plug-in protectors offers a lifetime product warranty. 

With all this in mind be cognitive that you should use your own judgement to replace surge protectors that protect your valuable equipment as needed. The surge protection industry regularly changes its safety and performance testing standards. In the last decade alone there have been numerous changes to the UL standard for surge protection. The last two occurred in close succession, 2007 and 2009, resulting in better performing and safer products than earlier in the decade. So even if you are using a plug-in protector that is only 6 years old you may choose to replace them for products that meet the new standards. 

As a rule of thumb you should consider purchasing new surge protectors as you replace your electronics and other electrical equipment. Imagine plugging your brand new flat screen into a surge protector you've used for a decade, it's kind of like buying a new front door and using an old rusty lock on it. 

Can a “power factor correction device” save money on my power bill and provide surge protection?

Any panel mount surge protector that you consider must be listed UL 1449 3rd Edition (the UL listing for surge protectors). This is not only for performance but also for safety reasons. If the product has not been evaluated specifically for UL 1449 3rd Edition then important end-of-life (failure mode) testing has not been performed to determine if the product will fail passively (safely) and the product may explode when subject to a fault condition and put you at risk for an electrical fire.

Although it is tempting to buy a product that claims to save you money on your home’s power bill there is no documented proof from a reputable organization that substantiates these claims. Buyer Beware!

A document was released on Dec 15, 2009 by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and the US Dept of Commerce that discusses "Power Factor Correction" for residential applications. This document is available on the NIST website. There is also a reference in the NIST document to the US Dept of Energy "Energy Star" program's opinion of power factor correction devices which is located on the Energy Star website’s FAQ. Q: Do Power Factor Correction Devices (kVAR) really save money?

What Surge Protector do I need?

Frequently consumers are trying to figure out do surge protectors work, what surge protectors do i need and what should I look for when selecting a surge protector? Searching online for these answers can be difficult when you aren't well versed in industry technobabble and jargon. 

The simply answers are Yes surge protectors work (but only provide protection against surges), your surge protection needs depend on what you want to protect, and when selecting a surge protector it should be third party tested by a reputable laboratory for safety and performance testing at minimum!

Now for the detailed explanations!

Surge protectors in fact "work." But there is a mis-perception of how they work / what they do. Surge protectors only safeguard against surges. A surge protector almost always fails when subjected to the impact of a direct lightning strike (nothing can prevent a direct lightning strike) and most certainly fails if the utility losses its Neutral reference. 

In order to achieve full protection of your home's electrically connected equipment you must use Whole Home Surge Protection strategies. If you want to protect electronics then point-of-use plug-in surge protectors will do the job. But for all your equipment that is hard wired or does not use a typical 110v plug then you need a surge protector at your electrical panel. Don't forget to protect your phone and coaxial connections. These connections are a source for surge damage too.

When you are selecting any surge protector it is important that it has been tested according to the UL 1449 3rd Edition requirements for surge protection. All manufacturers UL listings are available for review on the UL website. Just because there is a UL hologram sticker on a product doesn't mean that it has been tested to this standard. 

Be careful not to confuse panel mount surge protector (Surge Protective Device, SPD) listed products with outdated Secondary Surge Arrestor (aka Lightning Arrestors) products produced previous to the major UL standard change that the industry saw back in Sept 2009.

When comparing surge protectors it is important to consider both the surge current capacity and clamping voltage to determine the performance of the surge protector. Please reference “What is surge current capacity?” and “What is clamping voltage?”

For point-of-use plug-in devices you want a clamping voltage of no more than 400V L-N (330v is the best you can get) and for your electrical panel 600V or 700V is a good rating for L-N. For point-of-use plug-in protectors you want protection on modes L-N, L-G and N-G but on the panel L-N and L-G protection is sufficient. N-G protection isn't necessary at the home's main electrical panel because of the fact that N-G are bonded at your service entrance so that they are electrically the same.  

What surge current capacity is appropriate for your equipment to be protected can be objective. Any thing over 10,000 Amps is acceptable. Higher numbers in surge current capacity imply redundancy and should NOT be mis-perceived as being able to handle the effects of say a 1,000,000 Amp lightning strike.  BEWARE OF JOULE RATINGS.  Joule ratings are nonsensical for choosing surge protectors. 

DON'T DO THIS! It's not safe.

Be cognitive of the failure mode of your surge protectors. What happens when they no longer are protecting you? For point-of-use protectors select a series connected device or even a parallel device with an audible alarm. If a LED light simply extinguishes when the surge protection elements go bad you may not observe the light being out and your electronics can be damaged as a result of you not replacing the surge protector. Also, do not daisy chain surge protectors! You shouldn't be overloading the circuit in the first place. If your outlets aren't grounded you cannot use an adapter.

For panel mounted devices we recommend a parallel device with an audible alarm. You want your electricity to still be "on" even if you are unprotected but you want to be notified immediately when you aren't. Again if you don't observe a status light extinguished on your surge protector your electrical equipment can be damaged without you realizing it until you've investigated after the fact. 

What is a surge protector?

Surge Protectors are designed to reduce and divert potentially damaging short-duration voltage spikes safely out of the system to Ground. This is similar in concept to pressure relief valves that protect water heaters from overpressure. It is a common misconception that surge protectors "absorb" surges when in fact their purpose is to divert the surge away from the protected equipment to Ground.

For more answer to common surge protection questions check out the FAQ.




What is a Surge Protector



What is a power surge?

Power Surge

Power surges  (referred to as transients in industry jargon) are abnormally high voltage spikes on the AC power. There are a number of conditions that affect the quality of the power you receive from the utility, such as sags, swells, brownouts, momentary outages and sustained over voltages.  Power surges are by far the most common of these conditions.  Every piece of electrical equipment in your home is designed to operate at a specified nominal voltage such as 120 Volts AC. Most equipment is designed to handle minor variations in their standard nominal operating voltage; however, even the smallest power surges can be very damaging to nearly all equipment.

To learn more check out these surge protection FAQ's.

Whole Home Surge Protection

Whole Home Surge Protection

Preventing electrical surge damage has traditionally been left to the consumer to guess at what to do. Do you buy numerous surge protector strips? Do you spend time running around the house during a lightning storm unplugging everything in sight while putting yourself at risk for electrical shock? Or do you just do nothing and rely on your homeowner’s insurance policy to cover any surge losses that may occur? You do none of these; instead you protect your investments by preventing surge damage with surgeassure Whole Home Surge Protection. 


Whole Home Surge Protection cannot be achieved by "One Whole House Surge Protector". In fact it requires a system of surge protectors working together. We refer to this as Zoned surge protection. Zoned surge protection is accomplished with the implementation of primary and secondary surge protectors. 


1. First, surge protectors are applied to the incoming electrical, cable/satellite, and telephone utility services to keep externally generated surges from entering your home. This is your primary surge protection. 


2. Then at key locations throughout the home, localized secondary protection is provided to safeguard against any residual surges from the main service and any internally generated surges. 


To apply this type of protection for your home, surgeassure™ developed Total Zone Protection, which consists of dividing the home into three protection zones: Main Zone, Interior Zone & Exterior Zone. Specialized surge protectors are designed for each zone location: Main Zone, Interior Zone and Exterior Zone.


To purchase Whole Home surge protection products check out our store.