whole house surge protectors

[Jim Baird]

Local POCO sends out brochures offering install of whole house surge protectors.  They want 10 bucks a month for the rest of your life.  Anyone here have experience with this kind of thing?

Edited October 25, 2017 by Jim Baird

[Jim Katen]

https://www.amazon.com/Siemens-QSA2020SPD-Protection-Circuit-Breakers/dp/B0052MG5K0/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1508980874&sr=1-1&keywords=QSA2020SPD

[inspector57]

I am vaguely familiar with this type of program but have never used it. That said, why would I rent something that I can buy with a relatively short ROI compared to renting. I rent expensive stuff (i.e. tools) that I would not use enough to justify the purchase price. I buy stuff that I use continuously or that has a low initial purchase price compared to renting. Of course you want to compare apples to apples but seems like they hit on a lucrative deal for the POCO's benefit, not yours.

[Marc]

The measure of the surge suppressor is the number of joules of energy that it can safely pass to the earth without becoming destroyed.  The product Jim K linked uses 3 varistors rated 360 joules each.  A higher joule rating means more protection but costs more.

It would take one hell of a joule rating for me to let go of 10 bucks every month, probably more than I would ever need.

Edited October 26, 2017 by Marc

[John Kogel]

They will rent to folks that would never think of opening a panel, not qualified to install their own.

Edited October 26, 2017 by John Kogel
Correction; rent not sell

[Jim Katen]

23 hours ago, Marc said:

The measure of the surge suppressor is the number of joules of energy that it can safely pass to the earth without becoming destroyed.  The product Jim K linked uses 3 varistors rated 360 joules each.  A higher joule rating means more protection but costs more.

It would take one hell of a joule rating for me to let go of 10 bucks every month, probably more than I would ever need.

Me too. I'd have to look at the value of the items that could be destroyed by a really big surge and weigh it against the cost of the suppressor. I installed a Siemens one in my service panel in 1992 and we've never had a surge that's taken it out yet. I'm glad that I only paid about $40 for it at the time. If I'd been on Jim Baird's POCO program, I would have paid over $3,000 by now. 

[Jim Baird]

Our POCO is quite notorious for its boondoggles, especially in nuc power generation.  They are years behind and more than double their budget on a new set of reactors.  Their contractor for the project went bankrupt, yet our state public service commission keeps granting them rate increases and continues to  let them bill customers for reactors yet to be finished and put on line.  I see their "offer" as another way for them to scrape up some money from somewhere.

Re the rental idea our internet service provider started "leasing" their modems at 10 bucks a month, which forced me to give theirs back to them and buy my own for about forty bucks.

[Jim Baird]

As a rare household that still has a landline phone I lose a cordless phone adapter every cpl of yrs when lightning strikes nearby.  Would this kind of protector save the adapter?  It is plugged into one of those cheap surge strips.

[Marc]

31 minutes ago, Jim Baird said:

As a rare household that still has a landline phone I lose a cordless phone adapter every cpl of yrs when lightning strikes nearby.  Would this kind of protector save the adapter?  It is plugged into one of those cheap surge strips.

Good chance it would, but you have to figure something else first: what's more expensive, the phone adapter or the surge protector?

[rjbrown2]

Times change.

A few decades ago we were having several near strikes per year taking out consumer electronics. Talked to the EMC (maybe there's the diff) and they installed a whole house surge suppressor for no extra charge or rent. Have no idea about the Joule rating though.

GWTW I guess...

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[John Kogel]

On 10/27/2017 at 6:57 AM, Jim Baird said:

As a rare household that still has a landline phone I lose a cordless phone adapter every cpl of yrs when lightning strikes nearby. 

Bad grammar, Jim, tsk, tsk.

Reminds of an enlightened moment I had back in the 90's. We were paying rent of $7/month for a cheap dial telephone. Did it for years, never looked at the charges. They kept the rent low to slip it past the gullible types, and sad to say, we fell for it too.

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by John Kogel

[Les]

On 10/28/2017 at 11:50 PM, John Kogel said:

Bad grammar, Jim, tsk, tsk.

Reminds of an enlightened moment I had back in the 90's. We were paying rent of $7/month for a cheap dial telephone. Did it for years, never looked at the charges. They kept the rent low to slip it past the gullible types, and sad to say, we fell for it too.

 

there are times you guys "kill" me.  disect that John!

 

[Jim Baird]

4 hours ago, Les said:

there are times you guys "kill" me.  disect that John!

 

As an amateur grammarian I don't get it either.  I do have subject verb number agreement, and one person household is a modern entity, so I don't know why a householder should be denied the use of "I".  After all, in modern America corporations are regarded as individuals, with all the rights, but none of the accountability, (like jail time), that individuals have to bear.

We all fell for the idea that the phone company owned all the equipment and owed us rent for the clumsy corded product they provided, until competition and the angelic free market reared its ugly head in court, where it struck a victory (in its estimation) for the people's benefit by delivering the benefits of competition.

[John Kogel]

Jim, as a rare household, you talk funny, and can read and write, too. My apologies.

[rjbrown2]

"As a rare householdeR WHO still has a landline...."

There, I fixed it for you.

 

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[Jim Baird]

...who dat?

If corporations are people I guess households can be too.