Does the concept of a whole house surge protector have you scratching your head? Perhaps you’ve envisioned a super-sized power strip? Or maybe a large magical box capable of absorbing lightning bolts? Whatever your misconceptions about whole house surge protectors, we’ve got the 4-1-1 you need to help you protect your home and all its valuable appliances from those inevitable and frequent power surges.

Simply put, a whole house surge protector protects all the appliances in your home from voltage spikes, limiting excess electrical current by blocking its flow or shorting it to ground, much like a pressure relief valve. This includes surges occurring not only from lightning, but the 60-80 percent of surges that occur from within your home – typically from major appliances cycling on and off. With all of today’s electronics, you simply can’t afford not to protect your home with a whole house surge protector.

Whole house surge protectors are typically hard-wired to your electrical box. Proper installation is essential. A whole house surge protector must be properly grounded, since without proper ground even the best surge protector will be unable to perform its job.

Whole house surge protector installation by a professional typically takes about two hours. Unless you are highly skilled in electrical, it is strongly recommended to hire a professional electrician to install these devices. The electrical wiring on your service panel may be confusing, improperly installed, or house defects that could pose a danger to DIY installers not in-the-know. In addition, without proper grounding, your whole home surge protector will not function properly. For the safety of your home, your appliances, and your family, consult a professional for whole house surge protector installation.

Many components in today’s sophisticated electronic devices are sensitive to power surges. However electronics and appliances containing microprocessors -- an integral part of most of today’s appliances and technology -- are particularly sensitive to surges. Since microprocessors only function properly when they have the right voltage, a power surge can easily damage these fragile devices, affecting everything from central heating and air to kitchen appliances and entertainment technology.

Due to the prevalence of sophisticated electronics in today’s homes, every home should consider installing a whole house surge protector. In fact, everyone from the National Fire Protection Association to the Institute for Business and Home Safety recommends them. And while insurance companies don’t give discounts for surge protectors, they can easily pay for themselves in the event of a single power surge. Give your home the protection it needs with the help of Mr. Electric®. Contact Mr. Electrictoday for the fast, safe installation of this inexpensive and easy to use safety device for all of your essential electronics.  

Why do electricians and electric companies insist on using copper wiring above all else? It turns out that copper wiring is the best material for the job, based on its various properties. For example, copper is extremely malleable and ductile; in addition, it also comes with very excellent electrical and heat conductivity. It can be considered virtually perfect for wiring because it is rustproof and robust. Since it has these properties, copper wiring is able to carry an electric current over a much longer distance than other sorts of wires. While copper has a number of uses—it is used from everything as a constituent of different metal alloys to a construction material—its most popular use is in the electrical industry and for creating wires.

One of the least understood terms in LED Lighting is efficacy, or in simpler terms, how efficient is the light. It is typically measure in lumens/watt. Today, efficacy is becoming more and more important because efficacy varies greatly from product to product. What the consumer needs to be wary of is that you should not be mislead into thinking that just because you are switching from HID or fluorescent to LED that you are getting the best savings available. You also need to look at how efficient the LED product is to maximize the savings.

Here is an example of how this works. Let’s look at a two USA Made competitors LED Retrofit Kit compared to our 4th generation LED kit. All three units are designed to replace 400W HID

From this table, you can see that all products produce over 13,000 lumens, with the MyLEDLightingGuide product producing the most at 14,528 total lumens. It also consumes the least amount of energy of the three units at 105 watts, compared to 130 and 135 watts. For the record, all three products come with a 10 year warranty on the head and a 5 year warranty on the driver. MyLEDLightingGuide also offers a 10 year warranty on the driver as an optional upgrade.

But what does this all mean in terms of saving you $’s. Let’s take a typical scenario. Let’s say these retrofits are installed in MyLEDLightingGuide 105W retrofit kit. Multiply this number over 10 years and by the number of fixtures you have to replace, and this is real dollars. And let’s not forget the MyLEDLightingGuide retrofit kit is also much brighter than the competitors products.

So efficacy is important. It saves you money. But a well designed kit will also produce more light. Just think, without efficacy we wouldn’t have as great of savings, nor would we have more light production from the same amount of power.

Efficacy is huge in the world of lighting, and it is only going to get better year by year. Technology improves, lights improve, and thus; efficacy improves. In 10 years, lights that will be made are probably going to be 5x improved then they are today. And since they are already super efficient today, just imagine that times 5. Now that is efficacy!