Hey guys,

In the next month or so I am having central air installed in my house. An electrician from the company came to check my panel and answer any of my questions. Among his recommendations was to install a whole house surge protector, one that is installed to the main electrical panel. He said the install cost with labor would be $200.

I have heard about these and I have been interested for a while now. Being that I just gutted my whole house down to the studs, rewired, bought all new appliances, new furnace, new plasma TV, and the soon to be new central air... I was thinking the whole house surge protector is a good idea.

Are there any questions I should ask before paying for the protector to be installed in the panel?

There is some info in the sticky in the E & L section, but I did find this as well tonight: MCG Library of Datasheets,Specs & Installations for Surge Suppression,TVSS & Surge Protection

More stuff is located in the page: MCG Library of Datasheets,Specs & Installations for Surge Suppression,TVSS & Surge Protection

Sometimes it's nice to see how mission critical components are designed and put together. Installed with a breaker; attention to wiring; redundancy; warranty of unit; equipment warrenty; failure Monitoring; UL listing; Independent testing etc.

Ask what product he's planning to install and I'll critique it for you.

Yep, in my professional life I had a surge protector with an equipment warranty and exercised it. The supressor and the equiptment was toast. Management then started buying any surge suppressor because the computers were now "cheap". They didn't pay attention to productivity losses etc.

Don't falsely assume that you will have no problems once one is installed. I'll ask you: How will you know it's bad or has degraded?

For some equipment I invested in a power conditioner. About $1K for 1KW. Worked like a champ protecting a computer for like 15 years and counting. I had lots of repairs until that device was added to three mission-critical systems.

Also, the unit should be rated as high a clamping voltage, or joules, as you can afford.

Good surge protection should be at the panel and at the devices that can be damaged by surges. In commercial applications,that would be at the Main, distribution panels, and at the receptacle.

I spoke to the installer again. He said the unit is an Intermatic ig1240rc. When I did a little searching, the unit Has a transient surge capacity of 1200 joules, A maximum surge current of 48,000A, and a response time of less than 5 nanoseconds. Does this sound like a good product?

Also, it seems like the unit goes for about $70. The installer said he charges $200 including labor. That seems like a lot considering the company would already be inside the panel when installing the ac condenser.

This unit is fine.

While the unit may only cost $70.00, it also requires a circuit breaker, plus labor to install, and pickup the unit.

Contractors are allowed to markup the cost of materials, they don't make money by selling materials at cost. He also carries a one year warranty on labor and materials.

Ok. Thanks for the info.