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Surge Protection for the House

I've just received an offer from our regional utility provider (Sacramento Municipal Utilities District) for 'whole house protection', by which they install a surge protector on the electrical box for our duplex. It is free for three months, and then $6.95 thereafter, with only a 6-month total commitment. For $21, I might try it, but I wanted to get feedback first. If it makes no sense to do it, I want to know before having them install the protector and/or effecting the sound of our system in a negative way.
Thank you.
128x128boa2
cdc2
122 posts
 
Make sure that your phone lines are protected too. Our neighborhood lines were hit by lightning and we lost all phones, the modems in our computers, etc. as did others on our block.

When we asked the phone company about surge protection for the house, they insisted that lightning never comes in via the phone line. Fortunately the insurance company covered the loss.
shasta
155 posts
 
Good advice, and going from memory, the SMUD supplied strips come in 2 flavors; w/ phone jacks (RJ-something) and the other with F-connectors for coax cable.
rex
245 posts
 
My local electrical utility offered a similar service feature, and I recently took advantage of the Stage I meter-based whole house surge protector.

I did not notice any significant reduction in audio quality. If there was any, my big 2ch system would highlight it. No appreciable sonic change.

So, just for the piece of mind since I live in a heavy lightning-strike area, I thought it was worth it.
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