I'm looking into whole house surge protectors.

I had mine done when i had the dedicated lines put in. The unit itself is an Intermatic, although there are others out there. It was an additional 200.00 installed.

About 4 years ago I took my electrical power company up on an offer for them to install a whole house surge protector for an additional $5 per month. They provided a $10k insurance policy against any electrical damage to enter the home via the power lines.

Personally, I don't think they do anything but provide additional insurance but it can't hurt to have.

-IMO

Surge protectors can be helpful in a variety of ways. Years ago a tree gel onto a power pole and took out the transformer which destroyed the services along a full city block.

The owner of the tree had her isurance company pay for all of the repairs.

I had the electric company install the whole house protector at $5 a month and all was fine for a couple years. Then started to have a low level hum in my system that I could not find. Finall had the utility company out and found the surge protector was not mating with the new automated meter reader they had installed. After 3 different automatic meters, which transmit the meter reading to the co. upon a prompt from them, they removed the surge device and the hum went away. They told me it was a compatability problem with the new meter and the older surge divice. But the tech told me that many of the surge devices deteriorate over time and can cause a hum in sensitive audio equipment. So if you are having a low level hum you cannot find---take a look at your whole house surge divice as well as the cable line and all the many other things that can cause a system hum------