Electric Panel Surge protection

I have whole home surge protectors at my 2 panels - don’t know brand off hand; they were around $300-350  each installed. We get a lot of lightning with storms by me and have had strikes twice take out the panel protectors , but the protector prevented any damage. Net net check it every once and awhile to make sure it is still operating.   The electrician who installed mine told me that regardless of having the whole home protector at the panel to still use protectors at any equipment/appliances you want protected. I use ZeroSurge units for my 2 systems and a couple of tvs; Tripplite for modem, regular Lowes/HomeDepot ones for appliances.  I do use power conditioners for my 2 systems as well. 

@skads_187          More importantly, IMHO, find out what, if any limitations your home insurance policy has when it comes to replacing stereo equipment, regardless of the cause.  For example, my policy covers personal property, at replacement cost, to a maximum of $600,000.  There are no limits or maximums on individual items.  I do in fact have a whole house surge protector at the main panel, but it's the insurance policy that lets me sleep easy at night.  I see the speakers I bought a few years ago for $30K are poised to raise to $60K in 2026.  Ahhh, replacement cost.  Two more beautiful words have never been written.  Cheers.

This comes up so often I’ve written about it.  Bottom line is you need both, due to different clamping/let through voltages and the difference in voltage during a surge of an outlet that’s 30’ away vs. at the panel.  

In terms of brand, ideally the best are the one’s that fit in your panel like a breaker.  The leads used by surge protectors which are wired into the panel increase resistance and inductance which increases the let through voltage. 

Here is why you need both. 

Here is what I recommend for surge protectors at the outlet.

@facten  what kind of power conditioners do you use for your system?

@bigtwin Yes, its something im going to do tomorrow or next week and also find out if it adding it lowers the premium.

@erik_squires Wow, ok , so yes, I do need one in general, but , you are saying, I should still protect my audio gear with surge protection as well. 

Which then leads me to my next question, what do people do when they purchase those non current sacrificing conditioners , which mostly clean the line, example the SR Powercell 8 SX. I dont think it surge protects. Or in addition, ive seen many comments online to plug in the amp directly to the wall, which offers 0 protection. 

I guess Ill have to start looking at the Puritan again as an option, I think in terms of current, filtering, price and surge protection , it might be the best option? I will create another post for that not to get too off topic.

There are power surges from the electric utility coming through your panel.

And then there are lightning strikes which can enter from various points. My neighbor had lightning hit a tree then up from the ground through a gutter then to support rods in his elevated house. Fried his frig and two tvs. 

@bigtwin +1 on insurance. I pay extra for the replacement cost provision. 

I am not an expert, but I bought a Siemens model for a LOT less than that. That model might be overkill for a house. 

@skads_187  I use Blue Circle power conditioners which aren't made any more. Yes you still should have surge protection at your equipment as I noted per my electrician.  Below are links to ZeroSuge, Brickwall for info on their non sacrificial products

https://zerosurge.com/

https://www.brickwall.com/pages/the-worlds-best-surge-protectors?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=1608956600&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3aLHBhDTARIsAIRij5_-EL_37K9tfllkNUmvnm-SwAyujQ-eyNfqMLKSmdTXiWwLfUBm5H0aAihTEALw_wcB

@zlone I think you are right, ill probably go with a Siemens. 

@jpwarren58 yes, I do get surges (tend to lose power about 2-3 times every winter) and pray I never get a lightning strike kind.

I’ve installed a Siemens First Surge at the main panel (replacing an Eaton before that),  but also use additional point of use surge protection in the house for computers, printer and TV system as well as certain appliances like the microwave oven.

My main hi-fi system is fed by a 10kVa Iso Transformer that has a surge board inside the NEMA case, which obviates the need for any point of use surge protection for the individual components. My vintage Quad Loudspeakers are plugged into a ZeroSurge--since they need to be powered up for at least 24 hours before playing (not true for later Quad stats as far as I know). 

I also have a whole house back up generator 26kVA that has its own service panel. Only the appliances wired to that secondary panel are "backed up" by the generator and that panel has a surge protector on it when normally operating from the grid. If it throws over to the generator for power due to electrical service going down, the generator has surge protection integrated into its electronics.  I used this wiring scheme in part to avoid having the automatic transfer switch (ATS) in the same circuit as the main hi-fi. I am not supporting the big hi-fi system with generator power- if we lose grid power, I’m not interested in running the hi-fi from the backup generator. 

FWIW, to answer your question whether whole house surge protection obviates the need for point of use type, the folks at ZeroSurge claim that a lot of surges are internal to your household circuitry and according to them, a whole house surge unit is not a complete solution. I’ve covered my bets by using both and on the big hi-fi, I hear no negative effects from the Iso Transformer with built-in surge board. 

a whole house surge unit is not a complete solution.

This is backed up by the  wording of the National Electric Code, as well as the fine print in the publication of most reputable whole house surge protectors.  It gets lost in translation when electricians are selling them on their websites.   They'll say "protects your whole house!" but not give you the details, making you think your PC and TV are good when they aren't.

Important to note that no surge protector guarantees survival from a catastrophic surge strike, but 99% of damaging surges are the one’s you wouldn’t know hit anyway.  In my area we get 2 power events a month, sometimes storm, sometimes unfortunate interaction of a power pole and a vehicle, sometimes just power company failures.  I don’t know when they will happen, I can’t proactively disconnect my system so I chose to use multiple layers of surge protection all the time. 

BTW,  the patents on series mode protection expired a while ago and Furman among others now incorporates them into their designs.  Looking at the only 3rd party tests I know of, from Wired, the latest Furman and Tripp Lite models outperform Brickwall and ZeroSurge and also add nice additional features. 

Not exactly directly related, but I just spent $1,000 to find out that my air handler (the thing that moves air in my vents) uses a computer controlled blower motor, which is much more vulnerable to electric surges than your old school AC motor.  It is this kind of computerization of every appliance that makes whole house units more necessary. 

Not all surges are from lightning.  I've mentioned it before, but I had a customer situation where only room-local protection was in place.  A number of system-specific UPS's gave up magic smoke when a storm-tossed tree limb dropped a 4160V line on the 120/240 V areial lines below it and fed the 4160 into a bunch of local buildings.  Odds may be lower, but the same can happen when a car takes out a pole on an otherwise quiet sunny day.  Public Utility power is usually pretty good, but is seldom perfect, even if your service drop to the house is underground like mine, and I still use both panel and in-room protection.  

Some years ago the house adjacent to mine was struck by lightening and fortunately I had a whole house surge protector on my panel. The induction from the strike carbonized the surge protector but spared most of the electronics, some of which were plugged into their own line-level surge protection strips (I lost a few things, which I don't recall, but they were incidental). So, yes, I currently have a Siemens Boltshield FSPD14 whole house surge protector as well as individual protection units on sensitive electronics, including a Furman ELITE20 PF i on my main rig and a Brick Wall surge protector on my office system.

A couple others have mentioned ZeroSurge and I'd agree.  They're a small company based in NJ that makes high quality panel and other surge protectors right here in the USA.  

Thanks for the suggestions!

I got a whole house surge protector as part of a new electric panel. It had a clear warning that it will not protect from lightning strikes.  So electric panel surge protectors may not protect from lightning strikes.  

Installed a new air conditioning system and they have dedicated surge protectors on both the air handler and the outside condenser.

Also have a surge protector as part of a power conditioner used with my audio stuff. Power isolator from transparent Company, and curiously it says it's a hydraulic mechanism for the surge protector.  Fascinating.

If you’re going away for a couple weeks unplug your audio gear. 

Had a large oak tree hit by lightning a Long time ago, it never happened again. 

It had a clear warning that it will not protect from lightning strikes.  So electric panel surge protectors may not protect from lightning strikes.  

No surge protector will protect against all electrical events.  It’s like wearing a bicycle helmet.  You don’t wear it to survive being run over by a truck.  You wear them because 90% of your accidents are going to be low speed and potentially brain injuring. 

"BTW,  the patents on series mode protection expired a while ago and Furman among others now incorporates them into their designs.  Looking at the only 3rd party tests I know of, from Wired, the latest Furman and Tripp Lite models outperform Brickwall and ZeroSurge and also add nice additional features."

@erik_squires, Do you have a link for the Wired tests?

@emergingsoul "I got a whole house surge protector as part of a new electric panel. It had a clear warning that it will not protect from lightning strikes.  So electric panel surge protectors may not protect from lightning strikes."

That means against a direct lightning strike, however they do protect against lightning strike induced surges from nearby hits.  

@turnbowm  My apologies, I think it was Wirecutter, among their testing is this report:  https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-surge-protector/

@erik_squires,

I'm familiar with the Wirecutter tests and Zero Surge, SurgeX and Brickwall was not mentioned because Wirecutter has never tested them. How can you say that Furman and Tripp-Lite ourperformed them if they were never tested?

@turnbown  - Well, that sounds confrontational but I'll take your question at face value.  I think the confusion is that Wirecutter has done this a couple of times, with more details in the older test.  However, as a man of science and engineering, its up to me to find the damn links in my blog.  Give me a bit!  Today I'm busy, or you can search my blog for Wirecutter, it's in there somewhere.  You have a right to ask, just may be delayed. 

Hey @turnbowm - I'm sorry this rabbit hole is longer than I thought. I believe my comments were based on a 2017 review which the NY Times has moved off their servers.   A partial copy appears to be here:

https://www.lenkeng.com/blog/the-best-surge-protector-reviews-by-wirecutter/

Also, note in the current link they reference the 2017 article and have a picture of the guts of a ZeroSurge unit.   I repeat that Furman does use Series Mode Protection.  They also have a sacrificial MOV for an edge case.  An EE explained it to me as rare but possible situation the old-school series mode protectors would not cover. 

If you have a Brickwall or ZeroSurge unit, it is probably still in great shape and will continue to outperform most surge protectors out there, you absolutely should leave it where it is! If you are buying new though the Furmans not only have Series Mode Protection, and Extreme Voltage Shutdown but also additional HT/Audiophile friendly features.  

I'm sorry this is about all I can do at this particular moment.  I'll try to find the links in the Wayback machine later. 

@erik_squires,

Sorry, being confrontional was not my intent. I'm familiar with the products involved as well as Wire Cutter tests and simply couldn't connect the dots.

My blog is suffering from "bit rot" or in this case "link rot" where I link to information that's no longer where I thought it should be.  

I should clarify, Furman makes dozens of power conditioners.  If you are buying for top of the line surge protection you want to ensure it has SMP, and EVS (they're a package).  The PST-8 at less than $200 makes these really affordable.  Wirecutter also has good things to say about Tripp Lite but I know nothing about their internals.   I think someone mentioned Amazon was not an authorized dealer. I'm not sure anymore, so worth checking. 

I had a Furman PST 8  it worked fine until it started , for lack of a better description,  pulsing ( blue light constantly flickering) and ruined a 55 inch tv.  I’ll stick with ZeroSurge