Understanding Electrical Surges and Their Risks
An electrical surge, or power surge, occurs when there is a sudden spike in the electrical voltage flowing through your home’s electrical system. These surges can last for less than a second, but they can cause considerable damage. Some of the most common causes of electrical surges include:
- Lightning Strikes: Although relatively rare, lightning strikes can send an overwhelming surge of electricity into your home, damaging appliances, wiring, and electronics.
- Power Grid Switching: Sudden changes in the power supply from your utility company or during power outages can send surges through your home’s electrical system.
- Overloaded Circuits: When too many high-power devices are connected to a single circuit, they can cause internal surges that weaken your electrical system over time.
- Wiring Issues: Faulty or outdated wiring can cause fluctuations in voltage, leading to frequent power surges.
- Heavy Electrical Usage: Appliances such as refrigerators, HVAC systems, and dryers that cycle on and off frequently can create small power surges, gradually wearing down other sensitive electronics in your home.
While some surges are minor and go unnoticed, repeated small surges or a single large surge can cause significant damage to your home’s electrical system, appliances, and electronics. Devices such as computers, televisions, and home security systems are particularly vulnerable to surge damage, which can shorten their lifespan or render them completely inoperable.
Benefits of Installing a Whole-House Surge Protection System
Many homeowners rely on plug-in surge protectors to protect individual devices. While these offer some protection, they are often insufficient for safeguarding your entire electrical system. Whole-house surge protection offers a far more comprehensive solution by stopping surges at the source—your electrical panel—before they can travel through your wiring and into your outlets.
Here are the key benefits of installing a whole-house surge protection system:
- Comprehensive Protection: Whole-house surge protectors are installed directly into your electrical panel, intercepting surges before they can reach your home’s outlets and devices. This protects every connected appliance, from your refrigerator to your HVAC system, as well as smaller devices like computers, televisions, and gaming consoles.
- Safeguards Your Appliances and Electronics: Surges can cause irreversible damage to expensive appliances and electronics. By installing a whole-house surge protector, you protect your investment in these devices and reduce the risk of costly replacements or repairs.
- Prevents Electrical Fires: In extreme cases, power surges can damage wiring and electrical components, leading to overheating and increasing the risk of electrical fires. Surge protection reduces this risk, offering peace of mind for you and your family.
- Extends the Life of Your Electrical System: Frequent small surges can wear down the internal components of your home’s electrical system over time. Installing a surge protection system helps preserve your wiring, outlets, and breakers, extending the overall lifespan of your electrical infrastructure.
- Protection from Lightning Strikes: While lightning strikes are rare, they are incredibly powerful and can cause severe damage to unprotected homes. Whole-house surge protection provides an extra layer of protection, intercepting large surges from external sources such as lightning before they can harm your home’s electrical system.
Our Surge Protection Services in Gresham, OR
Our team of licensed electricians in Gresham offers comprehensive surge protection services to ensure your home is fully protected from electrical surges. From assessment to installation, we work closely with homeowners to design and install customized surge protection systems.
Surge Protection Assessment
Every home is different, and the level of surge protection required can vary based on factors such as the age of your home’s electrical system, the number of high-power appliances, and local weather patterns. Our electricians start with a detailed assessment of your home’s electrical system to determine the most effective surge protection solution.
During the assessment, we’ll look at:
- Your Electrical Panel: The condition and capacity of your electrical panel play a key role in surge protection. We’ll ensure your panel can support a whole-house surge protector.
- The Number of High-Power Devices: Appliances such as HVAC systems, refrigerators, and dryers can create surges during their normal operation. We’ll account for these devices in our surge protection strategy.
- External Factors: If your area is prone to lightning strikes or power grid fluctuations, we’ll factor this into our surge protection plan.
Based on this assessment, we’ll recommend the most suitable surge protection system for your home.
Whole-House Surge Protector Installation
Once we’ve determined the best solution for your home, our electricians will install a whole-house surge protector directly at your electrical panel. This device monitors incoming electrical current and automatically diverts excess voltage to the ground, preventing surges from reaching your home’s wiring and outlets.
What You Can Expect from Installation:
- Expert Installation: Our licensed electricians handle all aspects of the installation, ensuring that your surge protection system is properly connected to your electrical panel and ready to provide comprehensive protection.
- Seamless Integration: The surge protector is installed directly into your electrical panel, meaning there’s no need for additional space or visible equipment in your living areas.
- Minimal Disruption: We strive to complete installations with minimal disruption to your home’s daily routine. Our team works efficiently to ensure your surge protection system is installed quickly and safely.
Additional Layered Surge Protection
For homes with highly sensitive electronics, we also offer layered surge protection solutions. In addition to whole-house surge protectors, we can install point-of-use surge protectors on individual outlets to provide additional protection for valuable devices like computers, gaming systems, and home theater equipment. This two-tiered approach offers comprehensive protection from both large external surges and smaller internal surges.
Maintenance and Upgrades
Surge protectors don’t last forever, and regular maintenance is essential to ensure your system continues to provide reliable protection. We offer maintenance services to inspect your surge protection system, check for signs of wear, and ensure it’s functioning correctly.
If your surge protector has been damaged by a large surge or has reached the end of its lifespan, we also provide upgrade and replacement services. Our electricians will ensure that your home remains fully protected with the latest surge protection technology.
