Whole House Surge Protection

A few years ago, I rewired my entire house. The new meter from the power company's meter has a built-in surge protector. Right behind the meter is Square D's commercial grade power center with large copper bars that feed 2 commercial grade switches, one 200-amp for the house and another100-amp dedicated to the AV system. Each feeds into its own Square D QO Load Center which has its own built-in lightning grade surge protector. i.e., one panel for the house and the other for the AV system. An 85-foot long armored, cryo'd and cooked 00-awg copper cable connects the the 100-amp switch to the AV QO Load Center, which has 5 circuits dedicated to the AV system: 1 for each monoblock, 1 for the digital components, 1 for the analog components and 1 for the projector. Each of those terminates in an audiophile grade receptical. PAD Anniversary PCs then connect to Transparent PowerIsolator MMs which have non-current limiting surge protection that reacts in pico-seconds instead of the usual nanoseconds.

This change actually improved the sound dramatically (a truly dead quiet background) with no sonic sacrifices whatsoever. And I sleep better at night and feel far more comfortable when I'm away from the house.

Hope this helps.

Ed

Unplug your equipment during lightning storms if you want to protect it.It's the only safe way.Lightning does strange and destructive things.

Tpreaves, good advice but what about those times when one is not at home, either away, on vacation, whatever?

Simple,unplug your equipment when you leave for vacation or if there is a chance of lightning.I work out of town and my equipment gets unplugged when I walk out the door.

Unplugging when you leave the house for an extended period or when you know that thunderstorms are likely is the best and wisest protection.

But there are other types of surges in the mains that are random and unpredictable, such as when a transformer blows or when a generator is taken off line or when power is simply interrupted and then comes back on. These surges, especially an accumulation of them over time, will damage your system. Extremely fast, high quality surge protectors are a defense against damage caused by these surges.