Soon i'll renew my main electical panel, 200amp.

The electician suggest me to put a surge protection module on main distribution panel.(Seimens i don't know model number).
This has the advantage to protect the entire house.
These module has a protection capacity of 1600 joules this is an option of 300-400$ range.

Does it worth it?
Does some of you already have it ?
What are de pro's & cons of it vs small unit like: Monster power HTS 1600, 1800...HDP..2500 ?

my first mind is: main units give a fair protection (1600 joules) to entire house, vs a better protection (5000-6000 joules) for only specific electrical equipment on the house.

I'm living in Quebec, where the power utility is stable.
Your opignon please ?

I've been meaning to install a whole house surge protection, but just never got around to it yet. I do have a battery backup unit protecting my computer and my home theater system (except subwoofer).

Whole house surge protection is the way to go. These are the type of surge protectors that actually work.

If a surge is coming from the outside power line the whole house surge protector acts as a path of least resistance. Instead of the surge coming into your home to seek ground in an appliance or electronic device (subwoofer, computer etc), it shunts the surge to your homes outside earth ground, harmlessly. Whole house surge protection follows electrical theory and building/electrical code.

The plug-in surge protectors like the monster are pretty much useless. They don't work. The specs are meaningless on plug-in protectors as well.

Remember that part of the "protection" (really the whole point) of whole-house surge protectors is that it is connected to a single point earth ground. Your homes ground rods and distance from the panel is critical.

Hmmm. I always wondered about adding something like this. We have a main 200amp (I believe) breaker panel in the garage that has another 100amp panel off of that that goes to the basement.

I see that there are some add-on modules at places like Home Depot for not a whole lot of cash, but can it really be that easy (and cheap) to add it? I am not afraid to go into my electrical box. I did so when replacing all of the breakers and running all of the electrical wiring for the basement. (Don't confuse not being afraid with not respecting the awesome power of electricity.)

Eaton Complete Home Surge Protection

We have whole-house protection on our panel. We had it put on when we rewired the whole house upon purchase. It previously had a 30 amp knob and tube wiring.

I still use surge protectors because of the value of what I have plugged in, but I like having that "first line of defense".

Plug in surge protectors is like wearing a condom with a hole in it.

What is odd is that a number of web sites say that you should do both, use the whole house surge protector AND a surge protector at the outlet for any critical equipment. That makes no sense to me. If you have a whole house one that "catches" a surge before it hits your outlets, then I am not sure what those are doing short of making sure that one component on that surge protector doesn't go nuts and surge power back to the other components in that surge protector. Never heard of that, or at least it can't happen enough to be a real concern if you ask me.

Then again, I am not an electrician or electrical scientist. There must be some reason for both whole house and plug-in type. It does sound like a "Surge Strip" does almost nothing for protection on its own and needs the whole house protection to be effective.

EDIT: I found this video that explains why both types of surge protection:
Whole House and Outlet Level Surge Protection


Now I still wonder if the $70 whole home unit I linked actually works or not, or if you need one of the "$200" units.

What if I use 2 of them All my surge protectors are
doubled up. I truly believe that with what a guys spends on electronics this surely can not hurt anything, though I recommend having an electrician over. I don't know how inline surge protectors work when lightening Is present, but suspect its not as good as the whole home option. We have a lot of brownouts here, critters and such getting into transformers. We had 3 yesterday alone, had to reset all clocks each time, bah. Thanks for reminding me to get hold of my electrician, he was suppose to do this months ago.

Richard

Surges from lighting strikes, downed power lines need to be addressed and are definitely destructive if they seek ground in your home. It will overburden the internal protection as well as point of use surge protectors.

The internal noise within your home and the minor excess current that could generate within your home is not destructive. This is what the internal power conditioning and protection that is already built into every one of your appliances and electronic devices is for. Plug-in surge protectors are nothing more than a glorified multiple electrical outlet.

The vendor web sites and "electrician" forums that came up in the google search say otherwise and encourage the use of internal sure protectors as well as the whole house. They don't sell surge protector strips, so they aren't making any money with that statement. They still say that the whole house is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more important though.

The video I linked above talks a little about using both types of surge protection near the end of it. That mirrors what other information I found.

You are right though. Most people buy a "power strip" thinking that it is a "surge protector" and those are completely different and the price reflects that.

I almost installed THIS at our house, but I'll save it for the new one...

Whole house surge protection is the only importance in terms of surge protection. Protection to surges is dissipating the energy to outside ground harmlessly. Not even knowing a surge occurred. This is what a whole-house protector does. Destructive surges come from your outside power line. Surge protection strips can't protect from the surges that are actually damaging to every single thing plugged into your wall.

Surge protection strips are nothing more than glorified extension outlets with flashy lights.

Actually you would be surprised by how many company shills promote these type of products on web forums.

Although, the ones that say $XX, XXX equipment coverage can be good if you are prepared to jump thru all the hoops. We had a Tripplite surge protector for the office equipment and registered the product when we got it installed. When we had a problem (BIG surge due to Hurricane Isaac last year), they covered the damage to the computer. I had to supply a wiring diagram and sign some papers, but they did cover the repair.

I remember you posting something like that last year. Didn't you lose some of your HT equipment as well that was plugged into a surge protector?

Good memory. All the HT equipment was plugged into Brick Wall surge suppressors and I had issues with the EP500 and both Emo pieces - ironically it turned out to be blown fuses in the low voltage DC sections of the equipment, not the higher voltage AC sections (primary fuses). I did lose one amp section (single 150W) and was able to buy a two channel amp (75W each) to replace it, so the new amp is powering the rear surround speakers. I pulled the matching 150W amp section and have been slowly going over the bad one one resistor at a time. I found one resistor that had exploded, so as soon as I can find the correct resistor, I'll get it replaced and continue troubleshooting. If i can get it up and running, I'll have two 150W amps to build a stereo system... so goes the idea anyhow.

Ok I finally take it !!! The proposal of my electrician is a Seimens model: SPD4home (1080 joules) for 150$ installed in the same time of my new main 200AMP distribution panel. Thanks for your advice, Everything will be installed on July 13.

.... on by the way, i forgot to tell you that 2 weeks ago, i placed an order for... for.... a new pair a custom wood M100 !!!!

Well he did say that he values what he plugs in.