How safe are your electrical appliances? Have you protected them from power surges? According to the Department of Energy, every home in the United States encounters power surges numerous times a year. The higher the surge, the more the damage. So important to focus on residential surge protection.
What is a Power Surge?
A surge is simply having excessive voltage pushed through your electrical circuits. This usually takes about one to five nanoseconds. A nanosecond is said to be a billionth second. That shows how fast a power surge is. And within that very short period, it can cause serious damages if the surge is high.
Sometimes, a power surge is referred to as a power spike. Yes, they are similar, and no, they are not exactly the same. Their duration make the difference. A power surge spans three or more nanoseconds, while a power spike spans only one to two nanoseconds.
What Are The Causes of Power Surges?
Although power surges can be caused by equipment failure and improper wiring, the surges from the two sources are not usually so destructive. The real power surges are the ones that can fry all your electrical appliances or even lead to an electrical fire.
The real power surges are caused by lightning strikes and electrical issues from your power company. It could be a downed power line or other issues. The normal voltage is 120 volts, but lightning can send over 500 volts into your electrical system at a go. That’s why it can be destructive.
Can a Power Strip Protect My Appliances from a Power Surge?
A lot of people generally believe that power strips can protect their appliances from power surges. Well, this is partially true. Here’s the thing. Not every power strip has the ability to protect your appliances. And many of the ones that offer surge protection only have fuses that get blown when a power surge occurs. When the fuse is blown, power is cut off.
Power strips can only stand a chance when the surge is minimal. When a real power surge from lightning occurs, it may fry both the power strip, and the appliances plugged into it. So, you need to protect your home and electrical appliances from power surges by installing real surge protective devices.
How Do Residential Surge Protection Work?
When installed properly, a power surge protector will divert excess voltage to the grounding system. Power surge protective devices respond very fast. However, to enjoy your protective devices, your grounding system has to be effective.
That’s why we inspect the grounding system before installing surge protectors. Also, you need to bear in mind that there are three tiers of surge protectors, and we will advise you to install at least two of the three tiers. A single-tier may not be enough to give 100% protection.
Power surges hinder the proper flow of electricity, and when they occur frequently, they may cause electrical issues. Dimming lights, tripping of breakers, and fuses blowing out are all results of improper flow of electricity. And power surges could be the culprit.
This is the biggest reason of all. A single power surge can damage all the electrical appliances plugged into an outlet, whether they are turned on or off. And it could also lead to a fire. To make matters worse, many insurance companies will not pay any compensation when they find out that the disaster was caused by a power surge. To them, not installing surge protectors in your home is an act of negligence.
The best time to protect your home from power surges is now. As they say, a stitch in time saves nine. Prevention is always better, cheaper, and smarter than cure. It could take you several years to recover from the impact of a single devastating power surge, and that’s if you ever recover fully.
Power surge protective devices are not cheap, and their installation comes at a cost too. Nevertheless, the total cost is nothing compared to what a power surge could cost you. Why not make a move right now?
Thankfully, at Blessed Electric & Air, we offer residential surge protection, and over the years, we have installed the devices in so many homes in Texas. We have the experience, expertise, equipment, and human resources to protect your home and office from power surges, and at a competitive cost, I might add.
When you hire us, we’ll first inspect your entire electrical architecture, including your grounding system. If there’s an issue to correct, we will correct it. After that, we will suggest the most suitable power surge protectors for your home.
We know the most powerful brands of surge protective devices, and we will also use high-quality materials for you. We offer effective and durable residential surge protection. For more information about power surges and surge protection, you can contact us.
Below is a list of the cities we offer service. We may still be available in your area if your city is not listed below. Our DFW electrician team of professional and licensed electricians travels most of Dallas and Fort Worth. If you are unsure if we service your area, please call (214) 801-5755
