While you’ve probably heard of surge protectors and may even have some power strips designed for surge protection in your home, you might not realize how important this type of protection is. Defending your home against power surges is a crucial part of staying safer in your living space. In fact, you can consider home surge protection to be a worthwhile investment.
Understanding Surge Protection
In short, surge protection offers a tough layer of defense against a power surge, which is an increase in voltage that is more than your electrical system is designed to handle. This increase can happen for a variety of reasons. Bad wiring or excessive pressure on the home’s electrical system can lead to a surge. Also, a lightning strike could cause a serious power surge.
Defending Against the Unpredictable Nature of Surges
Surges can be unpredictable, which is one reason to have protection against these issues. Even when you are careful about how many devices you have plugged in and turned on at the same time, you might not fully realize the specific capabilities of your home’s electrical system. The unpredictable nature of lighting also makes home surge protection a necessity. You might not be home at the time that lightning strikes to unplug valuable devices.
Protecting Your Devices
One major reason why you should have home surge defense is to protect against damage to your devices. For example, if you have a television plugged into a regular outlet during a power surge, the surge could destroy the television. Think about all of the expensive items that you regularly plug into the wall, such as your laptop. A single surge could fry all of these items. A number of home insurance policies don’t cover damage from power surges. In other words, if your appliances and devices are damaged and the situation isn’t covered by your homeowner’s insurance plan, you would have to pay to replace all fo these items out of pocket. Keep in mind that not all devices and appliances should be plugged into power strips. Speak with one of our technicians about what is appropriate.
Reducing Damage Over Time
When you think of a power surge, you might think of a voltage spike that immediately destroys all of your appliances and devices. While damage can certainly occur right away, your devices can also be worn down over time from smaller surges that you don’t necessarily notice. You could go to turn on a device one day only to find out that it no longer works because it has experienced small bursts of damage numerous times. A surge protector can work to keep your home safe, even unbeknownst to you.
Assisting in Fire Prevention
A power surge could also lead to a fire. For example, if a power surge damages a device that is plugged into the wall, that device could go on fire. Keep in mind that surge protection is only one part of the bigger picture when it comes to protecting your home against electrical fires. Speak with one of our trained technicians to learn about even more safety precautions you can take when it comes to fires.
Creating Greater Ease at Home
Surge protection is an important part of home electrical safety. However, surge protectors also serve to make your life easier. A surge protection essentially allows you to have multiple devices plugged into one outlet. In other words, the power strip gets plugged into the outlet. Then, you can plug multiple devices into the power strip. This feature can be particularly usual for large entertainment at-home centers or in rooms that have few outlets.
Protecting Other Individuals
Setting up surge protectors in the house also allows you to protect other individuals. Children or elderly relatives who are unaware of the benefits associated with surge protection may live in the house. If you own rental properties, whether for long-term tenants or short-term vacationers, you could consider including surge protectors in the dwelling. Doing so can help to make renters happier while also protecting items that are included with the property. For example, if you offer a radio with the rental property, you can plug the radio into a power strip. By doing so, you are protecting your own radio from getting damaged in the event of a power surge. Supplying power strips for rental homes can also potentially help protect you against charges in the event that a renter’s property is damaged.
Grounding the House
In order to have proper surge protection, your house needs to be grounded. Grounding the house is an important part of keeping your home and family safe from electrical issues. If you aren’t sure whether or not your house is grounded, you can schedule an appointment with one of our technicians for an inspection. Surge protector strips alone are not enough to protect your home and property. Consider the reasons why grounding the house is a worthwhile investment too.
Increasing the Home Value
While having surge protector strips is unlikely to increase the value of the home, grounding the property can. You might see an increase in the appraised value of your home go up after the technicians ground the property. A higher appraisal value can have benefits for your long-term homeownership goals. For example, if you want to make major renovations to the house, you might want to take out a home equity loan. A home equity loan is only possible if you have built equity up in the property, which essentially means that the house has to be worth a certain amount more than the price that you purchased it for. Therefore, grounding the house could be an improvement that allows you to make future upgrades to the living space.
Selling the Property
When it comes to buying a house, many buyers on the market are looking for safe and cost-effective properties. In other words, buyers often don’t want to deal with making costly repairs upon moving in or having to deal with safety issues in their new homes. As a result, an ungrounded house may be unappealing to potential buyers. Getting your house grounded can help you increase the price at which your home sells in addition to actually encouraging prospective purchasers to check out the property in the first place.
You probably have power strips sitting around your home right now, and you may very well have not thought much about them in some time. Now, however, the benefits of surge protection and grounding the house should be clear. Our team members at Accurate Home Services can perform a full inspection of your home to determine what type of additional electrical protection is needed. We serve Crandall and the surrounding areas. In addition to providing electrical services, our team of technicians also works on heating and air conditioning repairs and installation. We can perform a duct cleaning to improve the quality of indoor air in your home as well. To schedule a consultation for one or more of these important services, contact Accurate Home Services today.
