Were you aware of these surge protection devices? Also, do you think they make more sense to install now after watching this video?

One point - when using a multimeter to measure voltage in a box, you may want to show how to insure continuity of the meter leads with the ohms function or placing the leads on a known live circuit before measuring the voltage. I once did a firefighter assist with EMTs for a guy who was severely burned when working in a 440 V box. Subsequent investigation showed that one of his meter leads was open. Since that time, I always check my meter leads before measuring potentially dangerous voltage.

I put one on my house after a near lightning strike took out many of my appliances. No damage in 15 years.

For Safety reasons, you should inform your viewers the following: Prior to using your multimeter when checking for voltage after you switched off the breaker, or disconnect Switch. You should first check to ensure your meter is actually in working condition by testing a known live device.

Thanks for the great video. Living in Florida, the lightning capital of the US, I decided to protect our home with an Eaton whole house surge protector. I installed it 7 years ago and the two green lights on the unit are still glowing 😀. It was very easy to install and certainly feel more secure in the event of a lightning strike. Prior to the install, we did have a strike nearby and it blew out our security alarm system which wasn't a cheap repair. Hopefully, these devices will protect like they advertise.

Surge protection was a major part of my job before I retired (including faraday cages and other over the top attempts at subverting Mother Nature), but I never thought about the house. Thanks for the pome in the ribs!

Knowing how to install it is valuable but understanding how it works is much more valuable.

My home builder installed two breaker-style EATON whole house surge protectors during construction, and they've already been putting in work dealing with surges due to heavy storms and partial brownouts. They're still going strong. The next goal is to eventually get a whole house backup generator so we don't have to worry about the occasional blackout.

I have a Siemens sub-panel right next to the main panel with a number of available breaker slots, and installed a Siemens SPD "breaker" in it. That part was easy. Just slot it in like a normal breaker and attach the neutral wire to neutral. Done. The SPD applies to the whole house, but it is also integrated with two 15A breakers (one on each hot) which can break a circuit if the surge protection triggers. At the moment I don't use the breakers. It has two LEDs (one for each hot) indicating that the surge protection is good. Small surges that don't blow the surge protector's internal fuse(s) (which are separate from the breaker) will trip the breaker and the SPD will remain good once you've reset the breaker. However, any surge large enough to blow the internal fuse(s) (on any SPD) usually requires replacement of that SPD. But here's the problem, these SPDs can only deal with relatively small surges, usually up to no more than 30-100 joules depending on the unit. Once they blow, they are no longer protecting anything. So I dunno... I'm wondering exactly what kind of surges these devices are meant to protect against? They obviously can't protect against a lightning strike anywhere even remotely close to the house. They can't protect against any sort of continuous problem on the grid for the same reason. One can put sensitive circuits on the breaker part of the surge protector, but that certainly isn't protecting the whole house. So these SPDs can only protect against relatively low-energy surges... but what cause those? What are they supposed to be protecting again?

I was ahead of the curve as I have been putting a hole house surge protector on the homes I buy for 25 years just for the very reasons you told us about. Having one electronic equipment smoked taut me a very painful lessen.

Excellent and informative video. I put this same Siemens device into my home about a year ago. I had experienced a few surges through the years that fried some of my electrical equipment and wanted a solution that would limit that in the future. After doing some research, I found the Siemens unit to be the most effective for a homeowner. Pretty straightforward to install too.

❤ Been using this Siemans model for years for entrance protection - has the most features of a reasonably priced unit should have and it’s an easy install. Finally the NEC has addressed this! I kept getting the excuse that the NEC was about shock and fire protection, not transient issues. Keep in mind these are more for nearby spikes from in structure or neighboring service loads like motors and back feed from inductive loads shutting off causing a residual kick back and ‘some’ distant protection for lighting. None of these handle direct lightning hits or major phase imbalances. Direct hits need lightning rods are for and yes, my house and my top clients has those. We live at the edge of a open 65 acre valley so we are first in line for direct hits. Virtually every electronic appliance is also on UPS for things like dip and light spike protection. Keep in mind spikes happen within the home as well. We have two Bosch central air units (the ones with the super efficient secret sauce Mitsubishi circuit boards) and they have a separate surge protector on each just after the outside disconnects. And, yes, the condensers cases are bonded as well to the lightning rod system. If you doubt that is a good idea, go read the Code. BTW never buy an internal surge protected plug strip unless it’s metal! Plastic ones can catch fire. I prefer non-surge metal ones off the UPS units. Why expect a mouse to do the job of a bear - as one lightening engineer said.

Glad to see you spreading the word. I installed a Siemens one in my panel that just took the place of a 240v circuit breaker for the dryer I wasn't using, very convenient packaging.

Glad to know these exists, I’ll be looking into getting one. It would’ve been really helpful to show what to do in most homes, as few have extra or empty breaker capacity.

I put one of these in my home a few years ago after a near direct hit from lightning fried some network components. Thankfully that's all the lightning took out. No issues since.

You're very fortunate to have access to the main outside supply breakers. Where I live these are only accessible by the local utility and they use this as a selling point for their subscription-based surge protection plans. I installed an Eaton CHP ULTRA inside but would love it if I could also add an external device.

How it works: the device detects excess voltage in the entire electrical system (since it’s all at the same voltage) and diverts the excess to ground. As long as it’s connected anywhere in the panel it should drop the voltage for all circuits in the panel (because of the common bus - anything that can drop voltage can affect other items, kind of like when your lights dim when your a/c comes on).

New to me on the new standard. Thanks for the update.

You missed the absolute most important reason the these got placed in the 2020 NEC! I designed electrical systems since my first NEC 1981 started in 1983. I have attended NEC classes every 3 years and had additional classes on NEC numerous times. My last class was 2020. Up until 2005 to 2008 the NEC was always about life safety. That was its rock hard core principle for being written. Then, the electrical manufacturers started getting their employees inserted into the different panels. It didn’t take long until the NEC is now used as a very strong sales tool. Being on the panel, “THEY WILL TELL YOU” I can not bring up changes to the NEC, I can only vote for or against suggested revisions. Who made the suggestions, you might ask, other people within their company. Before 2017 NEC none of the panel board manufacturers made these devices. Then they decided they could make them and force you to pay them for them. That my friends is how to make money in the US!

My electrician recommended one for the house while we were upgrading a bunch of stuff, adding a circuite, etc. I already had one on the HVAC, but am glad the breaker box, aka whole house, also has one.

We had a bad linesman do a repair (dirty power) on the powerpole near our house. A year later we came home to a disaster. The neutral had dropped from the pole, the power had nowhere to go back to and the voltage kept climbing in our house. Destroyed two water heaters, two whole house electrostatic filters. all small electronics from alarm clocks to gaming consoles. Destroyed many plug in surge protectors and set fire to my air compressor in the detached garage. The garage was full of acrid black smoke as the fire caused the compressor oil to leak which in turn caught fire.

I had a fire, had the ancient Fed Pacific panel, might’ve been the reason..I installed surge protectors (well, electrician did) on every panel including the new 200amp incoming service. Had my service upgraded, then added a surge protector in the downstairs panel that has a circuit that travels outside to the chicken coop..used the one recommended by the electrician, the ones that look like double breakers that fit in the existing panel.

Good information. Especially for a new home construction that my home doesn't have I'll make sure that I'll get it installed.

Excellent video. Did not know that device is required on new work now. I put one on my panel years ago (I’m a retired electrician). They were really expensive back then too.

I'm a RF engineer, definitely not an electrician. But I have designed high power limiters for the RF transmitters (which I also design). Essentially, limiters perform the same function as a surge protector, just a different type of scenario. The importance of keeping the wires short is due to the wavelength of the transient(s) (i.e. the 'surge') spike and also to reduce inductance of the wire - both which limit the effectiveness of the SPD's ability to clamp a surge. Transients voltages (i.e. a lightning strike) can be converted from the time domain to the frequency domain, and that frequency has a physical length, depending on the medium it's in (air, a printed circuit board, etc. affect the physical length). If the SPD is a quarter wavelength away from the connector point (i.e. the breaker) at the frequency of the transient, the SPD's 'shunt' impedance will appear as an 'open' at the breaker, meaning the SPD is ineffective. Also, when I mentioned the transient and converting it to frequency above - transients actually contain a multitude of frequencies, all which have a different wavelength. Unfortunately, it's not an easy problem to solve by attaching a SPD outside the box. The ideal solution is to install a SPD inline, between the feed and the breaker box since this eliminates the lead inductance and the wavelength issue. But that is not practical on a retrofit. Personally, I'd still install one. A surge can take on many forms, and you almost need to attack it from many directions (SPD at the box, surge protectors at outlets, etc.). Honestly, I'm surprised the electrical box manufactures haven't designed a panel with a replaceable, high quality and inline SPD at part of the electrical box (between the feed and breakers) - that would be the ideal solution for a new build. I'm not an electrician, so maybe there's some out there already? I know Square D makes a SPD that fits in a breaker spot, but that has some limitations (I have several of the those). No doubt it's a tough nut to crack and if it's from lightning, it tends to do what it wants. And there's other surge scenarios that an external SPD will work as intended, so it's definitely a crap shoot at times. Our house had a direct hit last year. Ironically, it hit the roof, bypassing the breaker box and the surge protectors located there, and snuck in via other paths (the outdoor can lights). TV issues due to going in thru the power line - no issues. HDMI ports? - kapow! I guess you do what you can. Sorry if I got a little technical. There's really a lot going on in order to make an SPD effective, and I really just lightly touched on some of the important details. Likely a surge is defined as certain waveform by the NEC (correct me if I'm wrong), and a SPD is designed around those conditions. Whew - that's a lot of typing! :)

Your videos have taught me a lot. I'm just 10 days away from my one year mark as a new electrician with no schooling. I can honestly say that you have helped me more than my 17 year experienced mentor. THANK YOU BROTHER

When clamping the wires in the breaker, make SURE that you are NOT clamping on the insulation!!!! It looked like there was some insulation under the clamps at 12:12 and 11:56.

I did this five years ago and I know it worked, two doors down they lost a 80 inch flat screen tv about six months ago to a local lighting strike

Whole home surge protectors are very expensive and have a limited life. I installed BRANCH circuit protectors (20 amp) as my 20 of them cost less than a third of a whole-house protector. My house is 98 years-old and isn't "code" anyway, although it's electrically far SAFER than new construction. My late Daddy and I were both in aircraft electric repair and worked with 600 volt 400 Hz AC, he in B-47's and I in F-4 Phantom II's and "Scooters" and combat repair of other aircraft in SE Asia. We re-wired this house for my Grandparents, and the four "BX" armored cable 14 gauge circuits I use ONLY for lights. When I bought the house from the estate, I ran 10 gauge Romex to things like my entertainment center outlet and 2 gauge "220" to the detached garage for my shop and installed a new sub-panel in the garage. The Sola brand protectors I used claim they'll stop 5 or 6 major surges (like near-by lighting strikes) then they're gone. In 30 years I haven't needed to replace one yet.

If the NEC is worried about saving smoke detectors, they should force the detector manufacturers to install MOV's or other such surge device in their devices. It seems to me that they made the surge protectors code because they are trying to protect their useless arc-fault breakers that they put in code a couple cycles back. Therein lies the problem with having electrical manufacturers on the NEC code making panel. Its a money issue diguised as a safety issue.

I added 1 to the sub panel i installed for a Computer Room. Luckily the house main panel has a Surge Device already. The new gfci/afci integrated circuit breakers are awesome too.

i lived in a small country where brown out, load shedding and other interruptions was frequent so for over 20 years now we use inexpensive surge boxes that plug in the receptacle and the appliances plug into them that monitors over and under voltage, surges especially for refrigerators it provides a delay restart to allow the fridge compressor to relieve some pressure before restarting.. i seen similar items on Amazon for ago $30 now a days plus for really sensitive stuff a UPS works wonders

Seen a lot of these installed during upgrades of the electrical systems or full remodels in homes. Never even thought about commercial systems.

Well done. Good explanation of why for. Clear DYI installation instructions. Thanks.

I live in Japan. Houses are supplied with 100-0-100V split phase power similar to the US (120-0-120V) system. However, in Japan, the neutral is never bonded to Earth ground. (Actually the neutral is Earth grounded at the distribution transformer.) The main breaker is always a GFCI breaker and 200V appliances are provided with a separate Neutral and a green wire wire to Earth ground. I am planning to install a whole house surge protector due to the large amount of electronic devices I have. Thanks for your video.

Thank you, I actually have a few of these I acquired at an auction, may not be same brand, I did not realize that they were a code requirement now. So I will move up getting one of mine installed in the near term. As to the value of these, they may not save a damn thing but they also might be the difference between a fire or not. Screw the cost of the equipment, my concern is losing my home, so I am going to say better safe than sorry. Most surges only last milliseconds and no this is not going to be good enough for a direct lightning strike but it should make the difference in a nearby one. It might or might not help in an emp event, but then the ones that are specifically sold for that purpose are basically just one of these. I was an electrician in the past but not anymore, I do my own wiring, I am lucky enough to live in a state where I can still do my own work, I do not pull a permit for a damn thing. No one's business but my own. If you have no ability to get to your box, or room in it. You could piggy back it onto any 2 pole circuit, even your oven but the dryer or the hot water heater would be easier, just add it in an extension cord fashion. Note this would not NEC approved but it would work. I am not sure it would help as I said but it damn well would not hurt. We all waste thousands of dollars on things like insurance we hope we never need. This is just one more of those things. If you can afford it or just like me happen to come across one, it is worth having for that hope it might help in an emp event. I can live with the loss of my electronics, I cannot live with the loss of a home due to a fire. I really think it is a shame so many men cannot understand or in fact install a device like this, this is one of the reasons our civilization is in such trouble, every man and in reality every woman as well should understand enough to know how to do things of this nature. There is a world of difference between choosing to hire work done and being dependent on someone else because you cannot.

Leviton also makes a surge protection outlet. Its NOT a first line of defense item, but its great as supplemental protection. I use it for TV that are not on surge protector with battery backup and fridges / washers or any fixed appliance that has a plug.

We moved into a newly built house 6 months ago here in North Carolina. I don't recall seeing this as part of our punch list of items.

Another fantastic informative video. Thank you.

Great information! Living in Florida definitely makes me want to have all of the surge protection I can get!😊

Seems like these should be built into smart meters and monitored by utility so they can replace as needed instead of expecting random seniors and busy parents to stay on top of it.

They are needed for new construction or full service panel replacement. My house built in 2019 did not come with one. I did install a whole home surge on my panel though. After big summer monsoon here in Phoenix valley, where power surge or power cut and the. Turn on surge things like my AC capacitors take a huge hit. I put a surge protector on my AC unit, but then realized I better do the entire house. So I installed one for the whole house. I went with a SquareD HEPD80

Great info. Whole house surge protection definitely a great idea. I am also learning about some products that also protect against EMPs and solar incidents.

I have seen Square D, Homeline series that have what looks like a 2 pole breaker that pops in place for around $100 or so. I do building inspections for the city I live in. It is a neat and tidy job when finished inside of the service panel.

That was very informative it looked simple but i think i will get my electrician to install for me ,just to be safe ,thanks for sharing 👍

Florida native. I've had plenty of damage to equipment over the years **BUT NEVER from the mains*. Even when buildings were directly hit by lightning, the power lines were NOT affected. Equipment was always damaged on the signal side, or from EMPs. I still use surge protection, but I think they're very much overrated. Perhaps the threats are different in a different part of the country.

Next door neighbor rebuilt their entire kitchen. Fancy new appliances, controlled with state-of-the-art electronics. A few months later we had a huge power surge. Fried everything in their kitchen. Thousands in damages. That new stuff is EXPENSIVE. They got a whole house surge protector installed very quickly. Me ... I got hit with the same surge, but no fancy electronic appliances in MY kitchen. All Old School. My computers and electronics do, of course, have heavy duty surge protection.

You can get surge protectors that drop into the fuse panel. Super easy if you have panel space.

Siemens makes a two position breaker which is also a surge protector. It is available as either a 15 or 20 amp breaker. QSA2020SPD or QSA1515SPD. Allows you to add surge protection to a full panel. Eaton and Sq D have breaker size surge protectors that do not function as circuit breakers for a lower cost. These will work fine if you have extra room in the panel.

Had no idea! Many thanks 🙏🙏👍

I think it was added because our grid is getting flakier. More sags, brown outs, black outs, etc. I grew up in rural Ohio 50+ years ago and we didn't have outages very often. Forward to today, in suburbia, and it blinks every couple weeks visibly, drops enough to trip ups on monthly or more, and every few years goes out for days on end. Utilities arent keeping up on needs or maintenance.

I'd have to upgrade at least my breaker box if not the service level to add a SPD to my house. I don't have any empty breaker locations in my electrical box... But I'm planning on a breaker box upgrade in a year or two as I'd like a couple more circuits (separate lighting and outlets in the basement, outdoor outlets, conversion from gas to induction cooking, etc.) Now that I know about the requirement for a SPD, that "up charge" won't be a surprise and I can plan it into the budget.

Great news and instructions

I have been looking to install one of these on my house for a few years now but just haven't pulled the trigger on it yet. We have very "dirty" power in my neighborhood and frequent power outages. I have several UPS batteries that frequently sound their alarms. I am going to prioritize this now, I didn't know it was such an easy install.

For many of us, our heat pump is our most expensive electrical device. There are surge protectors specifically designed for HVAC equipment and installed at its shut-off box with no breaker required. They'll protect against internal and external surges. In addition to the FS140, I installed the Intermatic AG3000 next to my compressor. You might want to review them.

Good information! Well presented!

I went with an Eaton surge protector that fits inside my Eaton panel. It's really easy to install. You just pop it in like a 240V breaker, then connect a single wire to the neutral buss. It doesn't have as high of a surge rating as some of the externally mounted devices, but it should be good enough in most cases.

Great video and information, thanks a bunch!

I want to install both a power generator And Solarpanels to my late 19 50’s motel. Heating in NH is mostly electric baseboard heat. The panel is 200 amp service.

Definitely getting one of these! Always a worry, especially now that I have a whole house generator.

We have 2 houses with deep wells on the same property. Replacing a pump on a deep well is a pain in the ass. Homeowners insurance pays most of the cost but not all of it. Thanks for the heads up.

New to me. Thank you!

The surge protection device (SPD) is now required because of health equipment in the home. So many of us have such equipment in our homes and that's the real reason.

😢😢1992, I was in an old house when it was hit by lightning. It blew a hole in the roof and explosions were going on around me. The vintage glass fuses exploded, my phones had burn marks, and my dryer also had internal damage. There were no fancy electronics and my computer was unplugged. Because of that, the actual damage was easy to repair. Today, a similar hit would cost me thousands.

Thank you from an old timer

Thank you for sharing.

Wish I had one. A couple years back we had a surge that knocked out my thermostat. It was during the pandemic, and replacements were very hard to come by due to supply chain issues. Basically had no HVAC for well over a week.

There is a later version of the box you recommend and the only complaint is that the wiring is about 15 inches shorter than the original. Thanks for the videos!

i didn’t know they were required, but we had one installed when we built our new house 5 years ago.

had 2 installed when I had electrician wire up a big heat press in my garage. He sold me on it as a way to protect all my electronics in my home. One on the main and one on the subpanel. I wish I had gone with the EMP shield one as the siemens may or may not protect against an emp pulse. Of course if that happens its probably game over anyway.

Thats a great video !

Great info. Thank's

Very clear, thanks

And as an EE this is where i get pissed at the code making panels. Computers have had far less failures for many years. AND yes it is a threat but for them to come out as that for a reason with no statistics behind these changes erodes the authority of the CMP and makes us as EE scratch our heads and go great a bunch of sparks and fire fighters who don't really understand the problem.

Had one and had a direct lightning strike to the power line right above the transformer. Blew the shit out of all kinds of stuff! Those protectors will protect if the strike is a long way away but there doesn't seem to be any "cutesy trinket" that can stop a close hit. Cost me several hundred in circuit boards in various appliances.

Do I want whole house surge protection on my house? Yes. Do I think it is the place of the NEC to require it? No NO. It has become very clear to me, that manufacturers of devices have clearly influenced the NEC to require things that go far beyond fire safety. The NECs mission was always to provide for fire and electrical safety. Many of the newest code requirements are clearly unrelated to safety and have the sales of devices in mind. I would not be surprised if some states were to say it has gone too far and go back to say, the 1999 code book. The cost of all this is what is making homes unaffordable. This a perfect example of what was once a great organization gone amuck.

Great videos! Keep it up. Question: Does this surge protector that you installed in the video in this set up, also protect when on generator power? Thank you!

Great post. TY, Sir.

Excellent video. I didn't know about the new requirement, but was planning on installing a whole house surge protector in the next few days. This video shows how easily it can be done safely. Just make sure you follow the instructions exactly.

This was a great video. I am not an electrician and was not aware of the new requirement. The Siemens SPD is a solid device and I have used it to protect field devices here in lightening ally Florida. This is important to note. These devices depend upon good low ohm grounding to give the best protection. Maybe you could elaborate on that aspect for everyone.

Oh my gosh, I was just quoted a price of over $1,000 to have one of these installed in my home! Seems a bit ridiculous considering how little time it takes to install and the price of those units. Your video makes it look easy enough for a confident DIYer to do.

My utility offered MOV installation for just the price of the devices back in the '80s (haven't checked since). They aren't perfect - I used them in various sizes for protecting electronic in our Van de Graaf lab. Very fast spikes could get past them (ferrite inductors helped that) and very large surges could over-power them (vaporise). Remember that cable, phone, etc. lines are still not protected. MOVs can and should be added to those, too.

I add surge suppressors for two reasons: 1) Stop surges from getting to a piece of equipment; and 2) Stop surges from propagating out from a piece of equipment.

For 50 years and longer never had a surge issue damaging anything. Last year I added a Square-D surge protector that fits into a breaker slot on my homeline panel. It is doing its job silently, still no surges that need protecting against ever noticed. Codes compliance keep electric people busy making money.

Important Question: When should one consider using an SPD which is specified for direct connection without the dedicated branch circuit and when to use one on a branch circuit?

As a service Electrician, I find the breaker feeding the surge protector tripped quite regularly. Once reset the surge protect will have the correct status LEDs lit.

Some manufacturers make surge protectors that fit directly in load center. Need a open slot on each side.

I installed a GE whole house surge protector after a power surge destroyed the blower motor in my furnace. The price for the GE surge protector has more than doubled since I installed mine. This Siemens device offers a lot more protection but was not available when I was looking for a whole house surge protector.

I would have liked to see one taken apart and some info on how they actually work.

I live in a town and we get lightning 🌩 strikes anytime of the year if it’s raining or not, I may look into getting an FS140 installed before the rainy season starts.

thank you.

Great Video. Thank you for sharing. I have question. In Main Breaker panel , Neutral wire and Ground Wire can connect the same bus bar ? and In Subpanel Neutral wire and Ground wire connect separate bus bar ?

I have a whole house surge protector for 12 years. It gets inspected every year.

Great video. Decided to install one myself. Question I have is whether it is more important to install the breakers closest to the incoming service line, at the top line up of the panel, or at the bottom where I can shorten the device wires the most? I only have access to the panel for the spd at the bottom as the panel is mounted between the side wall and garage door studs. Circuit lines all exit at the top.

Thanks for the information. I was hoping to find a method that wouldn't tie up two spaces in the service panel

good video question can you still hook this up in a panel box if you do not have any open spaces for more breaker?

I put one in a couple years ago. And you don't have to connect it through a breaker. You can connect Type 1 SPD's directly to the bus bars (line side) if you know what you're doing. But most viewers of this vid don't...may as well go the breaker route.

Special thanks to those device manufacturers for producing sensors that silently fail.

First hand experence. A lightning storm was passing through one day and lightning struck near by (not a direct strike), which sent a surge into my home. It fried electronics that were running, tv, computer, and a usb charger connected to a Smart phone i was using. When lightning struck the usb charger fried and some how sent high voltage down the usb cable and zapped my hand causing me to reflexively throw the phone. It sort of felt like mains power but I'm not certain. I don't know for certain but i think surge protection could have saved my electronics, and may have made that day a bit less frighteningly scary.

I'm skeptical that these consumer oriented surge protectors do very much at all. Especially considering that they only have 14 or 16 gauge wire that goes to the breaker panel. I would want to have busbar going to a surge arrestor and I would want to have gas spark gaps as well as some type of metal oxide varisters. And it's even more necessary in this day and age with the possibility of Electric magnetic pulses either by man-made or solar events. And then of course there's the issue where you have a car crashing into a utility pole and dropping a 13 kV line onto a 240 volt distribution line. You have to be able to protect against those types of events as well. These little consumer surge arresters are useless for that.