New home power protection?

1.  Is whole house surge protection at the panel effective and worthwhile?

Yes. Some of it can be very cheap. Panel makers have a variety of units that fit in like breakers. Utility companies also offer protection at the meter. They usually recommend an additional surge protector near anything sensitive though, as the EM pulse from lightning may induce a surge directly into house wiring.

2.  Apparently cable and phone line protection is separate and must be added to the panel protection.  I assume this is appropriate to add if going for whole house protection?

Yep, but it depends on whether you can afford this. Having a surge protector bonded to ground at the service panel is the best way to go for any outside copper, including roof mounted antennas (TV, Satellite), etc. It is the gold standard. However, there are also great units from Furman which include all of this in one.

So my usual advice is, get protection at the service entrance, and a Furman at your sensitive electronic devices.


3.  The realtor ask about adding a generator.  I assume that is a separate issue to provide temporary power during an outage but does not offer line surge protection, correct? 

Right, it won't protect you from a surge, but it will keep your refrigerator working. :)

To clarify, running all the outside wiring (TV, cable, satellite, etc) to the same panel for a bulkhead-like grounding and surge protection solution is what gets expensive, and inconvenient, but if you are building new, in a lightning prone area you should. :)

very good advice from all. a direct hit on your house cannot be protected by anything other than lightning rods IMO. I have a breaker box mounted surge protector and where I live the utilities are underground. We have spectacular lightning storms here in Northern Arizona and I've seen bolts hit the ground and hold for over 1 second, just incredible.

Thanks to all who responded.  It is new construction, but also a condo so no exterior antennas or lightening rods.  There are trees nearby taller than the house but I realize that is not a guarantee the house might not be struck.

I did order the whole house panel protection including phone and cable. Further consideration to add a generator will be made after I experience living there awhile.

talk to the electrician and ask him/her how often you should check that panel surge suppressor to make sure it's still good - mine has a green light that is lit if it is - telling you this because if you get a significant lightning strike that makes its way to you it can end the life of the suppressor and need to be replaced. I had to do this once, but the suppressor did its job and took the impact