Whole House Surge Protection

Can you answer important questions about whole house surge protection?

• What kind of appliances in your home need a new shield for surge protection?

• Do the appliances in your home have adequate security from power surges?

• How many appliances in your home need to be guarded from power surges?

• Why do the appliances in your home need to be safeguarded from surges?

• What kind of surge protection do you have for your hoe security system?

• Have you given enough thought to what you need to do to have surge protection in place in your whole house?

If you read my smoked turkey hubs you know that we just purchased new appliances. So far they work well and I do plan to write a hub specifically about them because they are classed as being particularly energy efficient.

The energy effective sales pitch for the new washer and dryer seems to be true, so far, so I like them a lot at this point. We thought that we knew what we would buy when the time came--and boy did it come.

A minor flood helped us make a decision we needed to make some time ago. The average life span of an average washer and dryer is about eight average years. Ours were 12 years old.

It was only fitting that a holiday emergency should occur with them since we had pushed them to the limit. The dryer was on its last legs but the washer, well, as I said, a minor flood ended our relationship with it.

We figured that it would be quite foolish to waste a good flood. Why not just redo the laundry room? After all, we were going from stackable units to two floor units. And the flooring surely did need replacing...good thing too, because we discovered that water had seeped under the sides at the baseboards.

I loved that a fresh coat of paint would cover the spots where shelving had to be reorganized. Since a blank wall is a wonderful canvas to me I began the fun of planning my design the minute we dried up the flood.

Back to the appliances. We didn’t really mind having to make a quick decision because we had given it some thought over the last two years. A new thing we learned in the process is that a major issue with today’s appliances is that nearly all of them have electronic boards for their functions, meaning that they all need surge protectors.

Evidently there are some kabillionmillion surges in U.S. homes each year and many appliances are destroyed by these energy spikes. This was a surprise to me. I had no idea power surges were such a big problem.

All the wires we already have connected to surge protectors amaze me. To hear that my washer and dryer would have their own surge protectors in the laundry room was bigger to me than the flood we had just cleaned up.

My handy-dandy husband knew all about it, though. He had that little problem planned out in a blink. Then he said something had occurred to him that he needed to check on.

Hmmm...was this a ploy to browse the aisles of our home supply stores? Nope. He did have a good idea. Turns out that there are whole house surge protectors.

Envisioning something the size of our southern air conditioning unit outside, complete with its own concrete pad, costing mega bucks, I was truly stunned when he showed me this little thingy about 2-3” by 3-4”.

I actually thought, “You’re kidding me, right?” But no, indeedy, he wasn’t, and that was when I decided that everyone should know about these items.

He bought a GE SurgePro which is an AC Power Surge Protector for all appliances in the whole, entire, complete house! He had to open the electric box outside that I am afraid of once the power company turns on the power.

I have followed his instructions to wire those boxes when we built our own homes. The inspectors were very pleased with my neatness! Anyway, I don’t touch them once the power company does their thing. I get the shivers just thinking about it.

Thinking that he might have to spend a while getting that new gadget installed so I began cutting in my paint job. He was back in a jiff saying it was all done. That's when I remembered that he has surprised me more than once. So he could do the stuff and such with the wires and pipes for the laundry room project, I folded up my paint job.

When I looked at the packaging for info to write this hub I realized that even I could have installed it if I weren’t afraid of the outdoor electric box. The package advertising says, “Install Confidence” but GE could probably increase its SurgePro sales by stating that “most people can install this gizmo with confidence.”

This new surge protector from GE comes with a terrific 3 year warranty on connected equipment and appliances (I suppose if lightening strikes an unplugged computer this warranty does not cover it) and it is rated up to 27,000 amps.

I think that means we should check with our insurance agent to ask if this reduces our rates. My husband doesn’t think that is very likely.

No matter, my tiny laundry room is fresh and clean with a snappy apple green on the walls. I painted clusters of white shadows in the shape of lillypad-like stems and leaves all over it.

I may yet “need” to do a little more to the faux effect, but really should work on a curtain for the little window. A white sheer with a green print would be a really nice touch.

We are still finishing the shelving but I’m doing laundry again--with confidence, thanks to the GE SurgePro AC Power Surge Protector.

• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ •

Like to write? Like to learn?

Sign up today!

Join the HubPages community

by clicking here.

• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ •