A sudden surge of power in your home can cause significant damage to appliances leading to their complete destruction if the surge is powerful enough. While modern appliances often have surge protection built in, they can fail in the case of severe surges and depending on where you live, your electricity provider might not admit fault leaving things in the hands of your insurance company.
How much does it cost to install a whole house surge protector that will prevent a powerful electrical event from damaging or destroying your appliances? You have options that will determine your level of protection.
Whole home surge protection installed on your electrical breaker costs $200 – $800 depending on the size of the suppressor’s power capacity in joules. A point-of-source power strip with at least 1,000 joules of protection costs around $10 for one outlet and $30 – $40 for multiple outlets with over 2,000 joules of protection.
You can choose to employ a two-pronged approach to surge protection by combining a whole home surge suppressor installed in your home’s fuse box and then add individual power strips with surge protectors throughout your home for a second level of security.
What is surge protection?
A surge protector is a device that protects an appliance(s) from a sudden interruption of electricity that is then followed by the re-establishment of the electricity supply. A surge of power can occur for a number of reasons and while modern appliances generally come installed with surge protection, they aren’t always strong enough to protect against a large power surge.
Surge protection can either be installed directly on your electrical fuse box in your home to protect the whole house or by way of power strip bars that have surge protection built in. When you plug your appliances in to these power bars, they protect against a sudden power surge.
But surge protectors have different ratings and may not be powerful enough to withstand a sudden increase in voltage so care needs to be taken to ensure you don’t have a false sense of security thinking that you are protected when in fact you aren’t.
Modern appliances use many computerized systems and an electrical panel can easily be fried rendering even very expensive and high end appliances worthless.
What is a power surge versus a power outage?
A power surge is a sudden and unexpected increase in voltage over 160 volts whereas a power outage is a loss in the power supply. In some cases, you can experience both together. Given that the normal range of power is supplied at 120 volts, a spike over 160 volts can burn out appliances and cause significant electrical damage leading to smoke and fire in some cases.
While a power outage is fairly easy to spot – there is no power in the house or parts of the home – a power surge has different signs.
When you have a power surge you might experience:
- Flashing lights from appliances like digital clocks. This is also a common sign that a power failure has occurred.
- Appliances that no longer work even after being unplugged for a period of time and plugged back in again.
- Smoke coming from appliances that are plugged in at the time of the power surge.
- A burning smell coming from an appliance after the event.
- Appliances, electrical outlets or power bars that need to be reset because they have been triggered to shut off due to the surge.
- A clicking sound that you hear if you happen to be sitting near an adapter or appliance that burns out as the power surge occurs.
How frequently do power surges occur in a home?
Inside a home, a power surge can occur frequently but are small enough that they aren’t noticed and do no damage. You may have experienced the case where your lights suddenly flicker for a split second and then nothing more happens.
Or the power suddenly goes out for a second or two and then comes back. Sometimes it goes out and comes on again so quickly that the digital clock on a microwave or oven doesn’t even need to be reset.
While the normal power supply to a home is 120 volts of AC power, it’s isn’t a consistent rate of 120 volts being delivered at all times. It can range from 0 volts – 169 volts and appliances are typically able to handle it.
But when a power spike rises above 169 volts, it can cause significant damage to appliances that are plugged in at the time even if they aren’t being used at the time. The heat generated by a sudden voltage spike can fry the electrical circuit boards and other components rendering them useless.
If you live in an area with different voltage, the principle is the same: A sudden voltage surge that is too high for your appliances to handle.
In some cases, a damaged appliance might have a circuit board cost effectively replaced so that it can be used again but in many cases, the appliance either can’t be repaired at all or not cost effectively.
What causes a power surge in the home?
Power surges that occur in your home can be caused by external sources (outside the home) or internal sources (inside the home).
The most common reasons for a power surge occur due to the following:
- Malfunction in a transformer or transmission station near your home (external).
- Switching of electrical loads in the electrical system that could be intentional or unintentional (external or internal).
- Magnetic and inductive coupling where a magnetic field induces a voltage in another appliance (internal).
- Sudden surge of power when turning a high-powered appliance such as a fridge or air conditioner on or off that causes a smaller power surge specific to the appliance.
- Lightning strike that hits your house.
How can a power surge damage your appliances and power outlets?
A power surge can do serious damage to appliances and other devices in your home that are plugged in at the time of the surge by delivering a sudden burst of voltage that the appliance simply can’t handle.
When you consider the replacement cost of appliances that you own, it can easily reach many thousands of dollars if you have high end appliances. A high end coffee maker can run $1,000 or more alone and fridges can easily cost $2,000 and more when you go high end. A decent treadmill may cost $1,000 and a Peleton bike starts at $2,000. Garage door openers can cost several hundred dollars each.
Add the cost to buy and install a new dishwasher, stove, water softener, water heater and so on. It all adds up.
Even with standard appliances, you’re talking at least $10,000 minimum.
How a sudden power surge almost cost my mum $480
A power surge that occurred in the area my mum lives in caused significant damage for hundreds of residents to varying degrees. A large storm knocked the power out and in some areas caused power lines to fall. The actual cause of the damage inside homes like my mum’s was caused by the power going out, not when it came back on again.
My mum had to have the electrical panels on her microwave, washer and dishwasher replaced. Her fridge, tv, Internet modem, water softener, electrical garage door openers and other appliances were unharmed.
Some of her neighbors weren’t so lucky. One neighbor lost every electrical appliance in her home including her rental water heater. Another neighbor noticed smoke coming from her treadmill and had to quickly unplug it before it caught fire. Fortunately she was home at the time.
For my mum, some other appliances like her coffee maker, fridge and tv needed to be unplugged for awhile to reset and when plugged back in, worked again as normal. But for many of her neighbors, their appliances were ruined and needed to be replaced.
To start with, the electricity company denied responsibility and so did their insurer when my mum checked with them. They said the same thing to other residents and claimed it was an Act of God
. But once people started complaining and local politicians got involved (some of them live in the area and were affected too) the electricity provider changed their tune.
In the end, the electricity company called a meeting for residents to attend and they accepted responsibility for the power surge and subsequent damage and explained how it had occurred. They ended up covering all costs to fix or replace all damaged appliances when a class action lawsuit was threatened.
And my mum got a surge protector installed on the main electrical panel in her home for $270.
Why do I need a whole house surge protector?
A whole house surge protector is installed on the electrical breaker coming into the house. It sits between the electrical supply coming into your home and all the appliances that are plugged in. Its job is to absorb a sudden power surge into the home so that your plugged in appliances don’t.
While modern appliances often have surge protection built in, many new and higher end appliances have digital controls that are susceptible to current surges and voltage spikes. A large enough power surge can thwart even a built-in power surge protector as you may find out the hard way after a large spike in voltage supplied into your home or if an appliance malfunctions in your house.
Many cheaper products such as replacement phone and laptop adapters may protect the appliance they are charging but don’t necessarily protect themselves. I have a story to tell about my knock off Mac adapter. More on that below.
Benefits of having a whole house surge protector system
The average home can experience multiple small power surges that you don’t even notice and that don’t cause any damage. But a power surge can also be a very destructive event in the event of a large power failure for example when power does come back on improperly.
On occasion, an error or malfunction at the electricity provider’s end can cause a destructive power surge when the power comes back on again after an outage.
The advantages of having a whole house surge protector include the following:
- Protection in case your insurer doesn’t: While home insurance policies generally include some protection against power surges, they may not cover everything and there may be a dollar limit on the amount covered.
- Protection for expensive appliances: Protect expensive appliances from a sudden power surge or other electrical event such as a lightning strike that could potentially destroy thousands (tens of thousands?) of dollars worth of electrical appliances in a split second. Even when appliances have their own surge protection, a whole home surge protector can act as secondary protection to absorb much of the surge before it reaches your appliances.
- Insurance discount: Some home insurers will offer a discount on your policy if you have a whole house surge protection system installed.
Does power protection on adapters and appliances always work?
See the AC adapter shown above? I could have spent a certain amount of money to get an official Mac replacement power cord for the one that broke. Instead I paid about 1/3 the price for a non-brand named one. It lasted about 6 months.
One day I was sitting at my table looking right at my laptop which was plugged in. The power in the house went off for a split second and came on again immediately. As it came back on, I heard a clicking sound coming from the plug to the right of me which was this adapter plugged into the wall charging my Mac.
Long story short, the adapter had burned out from the surge. That was the clicking sound. So while the adapter technically did its job as stated in the small print down above in the pic, it died doing it. Which is not how it should work.
You can leave your tv, fridge, stove, microwave, cellphone and other appliances plugged in during a power surge and they’ll be fine. That’s how it’s supposed to work. If you own a power surge protector, it should do the same. It’s not supposed to die in order to save the appliance when plugged in if a power surge happens.
Long story short: Unplug smaller appliances such as cellphones, laptops, computers and video games when they are fully charged and unplug the charger too. Just because an adapter says it’ll protect against a power surge doesn’t mean that it will.
If you’re going on holiday, it also doesn’t hurt to unplug certain appliances that don’t need to remain plugged in such as your tv and Internet modem just to be safe.
Protect your appliances from a power surge
The best way to protect appliances in your home from a power surge is to use a two-tiered approach:
- Service entrance surge protection: This is surge protection that is installed directly on your main electrical panel in your home to protect right at the source.
Expect to pay $200 – $800 for whole home surge protection on your main electrical panel depending on where you live and the size of your suppressor’s power capacity in joules that you choose. Ask your electrician installing the surge protector what level of joule protection you need. - Point-of-use surge protection: This is a power strip with surge protection. These are smaller devices that plug directly into your wall outlet. You then plug your appliances into this surge protector to power them and protect them at the same time.
A power strip rated at least 1,000 joules costs around $10 for an individual outlet and $20 – $30 with multiple outlets to plug into. Higher quality power bars with surge protection of over 2,000 joules cost around $30 – $40.
Choose a power strip with surge protection of at least 1,000 joules or more. Lesser and cheaper models may not be powerful enough to protect your higher end appliances and are thus useless.
The idea behind using this two-pronged strategy is that using more than one separate device helps to better protect you in the case of a major power surge. During a large power surge, the main service entrance surge protector can reduce the power surge entering the home before it reaches the individual point-of-use surge protectors you are using on individual appliances.
This is particularly useful during sudden and extreme power surges caused by a lightning strike or surge from your electrical utility provider.
Note: Surge protectors won’t last forever. If you know that you’ve had an event of two where your surge protector was used to protect your appliances, you should consider replacing it as it will wear out and lose its ability to protect against future power surges.
What to do if you experience a damaging power surge in your area
If you experience a power surge in your area and are home at the time, quickly check appliances in your home and unplug them if the power is coming on and off. Check for smoke or any other sign that an appliance might have caught fire which can occasionally happen.
Check with your neighbors to see who else was affected. If you’re not the only one impacted it’s likely that it was an event that was beyond your control that someone – your electricity provider – might ultimately be responsible for.
Document each appliance that either won’t work or isn’t working as it was before the event.
Contact your home insurer if needed to inquire about your deductible too if you can’t recall what it is. Events like this are a good time to reevaluate your coverage. My mum has a $1,000 deductible and the damage that she had to pay for due to her power surge event was around $480 which ended up being covered by the electricity company’s insurer. Had they had refused to pay, she’d have had to pay that amount herself due to her higher deductible.
As mentioned earlier, that’s more than the cost of the surge protector that she had installed in her home following the event.
In other words even a surge protector for several hundred dollars can potentially save you much more especially if you have a relatively high home insurance deductible.