SURGE SUPPRESSERS
A destructive phenomenon called a “power surge” is a major cause of premature death of electronic equipment such as your TV, VCR, microwave oven, stereo and home computer. In fact, lightning induced power surges can harm major appliances such as your water heater, washer, dryer, and air conditioning unit. Today most in-home electronic devices are controlled by sensitive micro-processors, which are very susceptible to power surges.
“WHAT IS A POWER SURGE?” A power surge is a dramatic increase in the electric power (voltage) that comes into your home. It can come in through any of the electric, telephone or TV cables. Your Cooperative makes every effort to supply you with clean power, but sometimes lightning storms and other localized occurrences can cause damaging power surges. An independent study attributes about ¼ of appliances failures to lightning induced power surges.
“CAN THE POWER COMPANY PROTECT ME FROM POWER SURGES?” To some extent, yes… but practically speaking the protection needs to be at the customer’s location where wires enter the house. Usually that is the electric disconnects switch location. An electric system is designed to handle whatever load current the customers demand (by turning on their appliances). So surge currents need to be significantly higher than load current to be identified as not normal. We can stop the very large transients, (which is what a power surge really should be called), but a portion of it does get through and damages electronic equipment. Because the individual customer’s load varies within fairly small limits and at a much lower voltage (240 volts instead of 7200 volts or higher), protective equipment is now available to filter out much more of the transient voltage spike at the customers meter than the electric utility can.
These LEVITON SURGE PROTECTORS stop damaging power surges before they enter your home or equipment. They literally eat the voltage spike. They also protect you from spikes generated in your house by motors or equipment starting and stopping, which is where most of the smaller spikes originate. They actually pay for themselves by saving you maintenance and replacement costs and extend the life of all your home appliances and electronic equipment.
“WHERE CAN I GET A LEVITON SURGE PROTECTOR?” You can get a very inexpensive and very low power surge suppresser at almost any department or hardware store. Most are rated fewer than 100 joules of power spike energy. But because their quality is so questionable and your risk is so great, your Cooperative has searched for the absolute best one made and is reselling them. They are called LEVITON SURGE PROTECTORS and are manufactured by Leviton Manufacturing Co. Inc. in New York. Our residential and small commercial package consists of a high current voltage clamp located at the meter and a very fast voltage clamp at the plug-strip serving the electronic devices needing maximum protection. You need both for adequate protection. The pair sells for $216.68 plus tax installed and can be added to your electric bill. Payout terms are available.
Additional features available combine power and telephone in one device. Devices for larger installations (over 200 Amp services) are also available at higher costs. The device at the meter carries a fifteen (15) year warranty and all the others have different warranties and protect again and again. Of course, if you take a direct lightning strike, all kinds of damage will occur. But most damage occurs from remote lightning strikes.
If interested, or if you would like to know more, contact the Engineering Department at your Cooperative (918) 756-0833.
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