ALL SURGE SUPPRESSION DEVICES ARE
NOT CREATED EQUAL
Since 1997
Surge Suppression Incorporated has successfully
protected the electrical systems and the sensitive
electronic equipment in offices, banks, schools,
convenience stores, theme parks, industrial
facilities, government buildings, and more around
the world. Our products are installed in U.S.
Embassy buildings and military bases around the
world. If our products have the ability to protect
the buildings and facilities that protect our
freedom, they can certainly protect our homes. We
believe that our products are the best power surge
and lightning protection products on the market
today. This belief isn’t just something that we
conjured up…it comes form years of experience and
feedback from thousands of satisfied customers.
Every one of our products is American made.
Many
companies sell off of the philosophy that the less
you know….the more they can sell. That is not our
philosophy. When considering a power surge and
lightning protection system for your home, there are
certain things you deserve to know and questions you
should ask. From the questions and answers below,
we think you will understand how we surpass other
companies in this industry who still rely on
outdated and obsolete methods and technologies, as
well as, gimmick warranties to get you to buy their
inferior equipment. Today’s modern homes are full
of high tech sensitive electronic equipment that
deserves a protection system that is equally high
tech and capable of protecting the equipment.
Q.
What is a power surge?
A power surge is a temporary excess voltage
event on an electrical system or circuit. It is a
very intense, high energy occurrence. Yet its
duration is so short that it does not usually create
enough heat to trip a breaker. It is not a long
term over voltage or under voltage event. The
duration of most transient voltage power surges is
less than one millionth of a second. Although this
is an almost unimaginably short period of time, in
the world of high speed, sensitive electronics, this
amount of excess voltage for this period of time can
be devastating over time.
Q.
Do all power surges come
from outside of my home? No. Several years
ago General Electric did a study that showed that
approximately 20% of power surges travel into a
facility from outside, and that approximately 80% of
power surges are created from within by the
equipment operating inside of that facility. This
little known, yet proven and documented fact is the
“virus” that causes much of the problem in our homes
today.
Q.
What are the causes of
power surges in my home? Power surges in any
home are caused by both external and internal
sources. Many times because of their magnitude, the
effects of externally generated power surges are
catastrophic in nature and are noticed immediately.
The most well known external source of power surges
is lightning. Just as common, however are external
surges caused by power company grid switching,
transformers exploding, power lines hitting together
caused by winds or some one hitting a power pole or
line with a vehicle, squirrels on power lines, etc…
Internally generated power surges tend not to be
catastrophic in nature but can be just as costly.
They pose a problem of destroying electronic
equipment in your home through accumulative damage.
These surges are generated by the normal operation
of equipment within the system: heating and cooling
systems, refrigerators, stoves, washers and dryers,
fluorescent lights, etc. Think of a tree falling on
your home, catastrophic structural damage is
immediately done and noticed. Now think of termites
silently and slowly eating away at the wood framing
of your home. Detrimental structural damage is also
being done here, you just don’t know it yet, and
once it becomes obvious it’s too late…..the damage
is already done. It wasn’t immediate and
catastrophic; it is accumulative and very costly.
Q.
How do power surges enter
my home? Power surges can enter your home in
a number of ways. The most familiar and common way
is through your main electrical service via your
service entrance cable and power meter. They can
also enter through phone lines and cable/satellite
coaxial lines. Most televisions and computers have
both an a/c power connection and a phone/cable
connection for signal reception and modem
connections. If a surge enters your home on the
phone/cable wires and enters into this equipment, it
can then get into the electrical system of your home
without ever having passed through your power
meter. Also, if you have circuits running from a
power panel inside of your home to the outside to
things such as an outbuilding, well, gate, and
swimming pool, power surges can also use those
circuits as a path to travel back into your homes
electrical system. Power surges are non
discriminatory in the path they take and the
direction they travel.
Q.
What are the effects of
power surges in my home and why should I protect
against them? Advances in modern day
technology and electronic equipment have resulted in
smaller and faster electronic circuits. These
advances have also made modern day home electronics,
appliances, heating and cooling systems, saunas and
hot tubs much more susceptible to damage by power
surges. Not just lightning, but from the every day
surges that are occurring in your home right now.
This results in equipment failure far quicker than
it would normally, which for you means costly repair
or replacement of this equipment. Think about it,
solid state electronics and circuit boards in the
electronic equipment and appliances in your home are
not exposed to wind, rain, dust, or vibration and
they have no moving parts. So why should they fail
or “wear out”? What is there to “wear out” if there
are no moving parts? The failure and “wear out”
result from accumulative damage from power surges.
Q.
How do I know that power
surges are occurring in my home? If you have
electricity in your home and electrical and
electronic equipment, you can be assured that power
surges are occurring in your home. Power surges are
the normal nature of electricity and a normal
byproduct of electronic equipment switching on and
off. Your home has electricity and modern day homes
are full of electronic appliances and equipment.
Q.
What does “whole house”
mean and why do I need a whole house system?
Whole house means that your entire system is
protected as much as possible by protecting the
major entry points of all utilities entering you
home, as well as, protecting sub panels as
applicable, and some point of use applications, all
with high quality surge protection devices. If you
do not protect all paths, you might as well protect
none. Doing only partial protection would be like
going to bed at night, shutting and locking your
front door but leaving the back door standing wide
open. Would you do that?
Q.
If a power surge device is
UL Listed does that mean that it is a quality
product? No. UL is safety agency not a
quality standard. UL test products to make sure
that the products are safe to place on the consumer
market. UL voltage categories do not indicate the
quality of the device. Agencies such as NEMA, IEEE,
and ANSI are responsible for setting the guidelines
and standards that deal with the quality of surge
protection devices. You will see no mention of
either of these agencies on many residential surge
protection products. Many residential products use
the term “joule rating” as a quality indicator.
Because it can be manipulated, ‘joule rating” is not
recognized by IEEE as a standard of rating quality
for surge protection devices.
Q.
Why are products from Surge
Suppression Incorporated better? Building,
designing, and engineering surge protection products
are all that Surge Suppression Incorporated does.
Our engineers are dedicated to building the absolute
best products on the market today. We strive to
stay ahead of the curve in electronic and technology
advances, in order to make sure that our products
are offering the highest level of protection for the
home electronics on the market today. Our designs
and components allow us to offer a product that
simply does not degrade over time. And with our
25 Year Free Replacement Warranty, if one of our
units sacrifices while doing its job, it will be
replaced. We could not do this if our products did
not live up to our claims.
Q.
What is the difference
between your products and the commodity type
products available at electronics and big box stores
or the meter base units offered by my electrical
utility company? Most of the products that
are available in electronics and big box stores, are
very low quality and low tech devices. Their
componentry is very limited and they offer very low
level protection and are not capable of giving long
term protection needed for the sensitive electronics
in today’s homes. The protection that they do give
degrades over time and sooner or later, in some
cases, you have a unit with glowing lights and no
surge protection capability. Protecting your
equipment takes a product, like ours, that is
technologically advanced and designed into your
electrical system with multiple layers of protection
and multiple paths of protection in order to do its
job. This is why our products are only sold through
certified sales people and certified electricians
who are fully capable of looking at your electrical
system and figuring out what is needed to protect
it. Quality and dependability is price reflective.
Think about your car, if you choose to use low grade
oil and to change your oil every 5000 miles, you
will never know how much longer the car would have
lasted and how much longer you could have driven it
if you had used high quality oil and changed it
every 3000 miles.
Q.
What happens to the power
surge when it enters the protection unit?
Our units limit the surge voltage to a safe level
and divert the surge current away from the
downstream equipment being protected. This prevents
disruption and damage that would otherwise occur.
Q.
What about connected
equipment warranties? We have reviewed
numerous different connected equipment warranties
from some of the most well known companies in the
residential surge protection business. These
warranties have included power company meter base
units, plug in units, surge protection units form
some of the major switchgear companies, and other
companies who offer whole house protection. Some of
these warranties offer “$10,000 to $150,000
connected equipment warranty”. First let’s do the
math, who in their right mind would sell something
for $49, $99, or even $199 and offer to pay $10,000
to $150,000 and ever actually have to do so? The
“warranties” are loaded with fine print requirements
and stipulations that make it very, very difficult
if not impossible for them to ever have to actually
pay on a claim.
See “Buyer
Beware….read the fine print” for more information on
this subject.
Q.
What is Surge Suppression
Incorporated’s warranty? We do not play the
“gimmick connected equipment warranty game” as shown
above. Our warranty
is simple…..For a period of 25 years from the
date of installation in your home, we will replace
any Surge Suppression Incorporated unit should it
sacrifice itself while protecting your home during a
surge event. This warranty is good for the original
owner of the unit as well as any subsequent owner.
The serial number of the unit and toll free number
for the factory is on the label of the unit. This
is all you need to file a warranty replacement
claim.
Q.
How do I know that the
products are working and doing their job?
Our A/C power units,
both panel mounted and plug in, have status
indicator lights that will be glowing visibly as
long as the surge protection is working. These
indicator lights are tied directly to the surge
protection capabilities of the unit. For the phone
and cable units, if the unit sacrifices itself,
because they are wired in series, the signal will be
temporarily interrupted until the unit can be
bypassed or replaced.
Q.
Can your products be
installed in both new and existing homes?
Yes, they are simple to install in either
situation. Our units are compact yet robust. The
compact size and light weight makes it easy for one
person to install any of our residential units. Our
A/C power panel units come with a flush mount trim
face plate for a nice clean installation when being
installed into a sheetrock wall. Electricians tell
us that our surge protection devices are some of the
easiest to install that they have ever worked with.
In all installations make sure to have a good single
reference point facility ground. All installations
should be done by a licensed and certified
electrician.
Make the right
decision…….After years of tremendous success in the
commercial, industrial, institutional, and
government surge suppression markets, we have
decided to offer the same high quality power surge
protection to homeowners. These units are
especially designed for today’s homes and offer the
same high level of protection as our commercial
products. Our products are available from certified
and trained sales people who know residential
electrical systems and who have been trained in the
application of our products in residential
electrical systems. These products will be installed
into your home by licensed electricians who have
been certified by us to install our products and who
understand the importance of having the right
product, installed at the right location, and in the
right way. Surge Suppression Incorporated is
serious about providing you with a product that does
exactly what it is designed to do for years to
come. We will not place our products on the shelves
in electronics and big box stores and leave it to
chance, and then hope that you get what you need and
that it is installed in the right way. We want to
help you make sure.
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