Electrical guide
Alabama gets a lot of lightning. The state sits in one of the more active corridors in the country, and every severe storm season brings a wave of calls about dead appliances, fried HVAC control boards and televisions that will not power up.
Most surge damage is not a direct strike. It is the smaller, more frequent surges — a nearby strike inducing voltage on the line, a utility switching event, a large motor in your own house cycling off. Modern appliances are full of circuit boards that do not tolerate that well, and the damage is often cumulative rather than instant.
A whole house surge protector installs at the panel and clamps large surges before they enter your branch circuits. It handles the big stuff but cannot react fast enough for everything. Point-of-use strips at your computer, TV and network gear catch what gets through. Neither replaces the other — you want both, and the panel-level device is the one most homes are missing.
Device plus installation typically runs $350 to $700 when the panel has room and a modern bus. Set against one HVAC control board at $600 to $1,500, or a refrigerator at more, the maths is not complicated for a house in a lightning-prone area.
A direct strike to the structure will overwhelm any surge device. Nothing at the panel protects against surges arriving on cable, satellite or telephone lines, so those need bonding and their own protection. And surge protectors degrade — they absorb energy every time they work, and most have an indicator light that tells you when the device has spent itself and needs replacing.
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