Don’t try to surge protect everything at once, but break it down into manageable phases. Focus first on the most critical “must have” services and put a plan together. The following is a rough outline for a typical home.

• Power grid:

  • Install Type-1/2 SPDs with a licensed electrician:
    • Type-1 SPD at the main service panel
    • Type-2 SPDs at the distribution breaker box (in the garage), on the pool sub-panel and all AC external power points.
  • Remember to store spare SPDs in the main service and distribution panel boxes.
  • Test your power outlets are correctly wired and grounded.

• Perishables:

  • Place specialized 20-amp appliance SPDs on your primary refrigerators and freezers.

• Network:

  • Install a coaxial RG6 SPD on your cable modem (if you have one). If you have fiber-optic or ADSL phone line connections, use an SPD for that connection type.
    • If applicable tape some spare GDTs to the modem.
  • If you have a separate router place single port Ethernet RJ45 SPDs between the cable modem and router.
  • Place multi-port Ethernet RJ45 SPDs between any router, patch panel, switch. Also place single port Ethernet RJ45 SPDs on all RJ45 wall sockets, essential computers, and NAS drives.
  • It is a great idea to power the modem, router, central switches off UPS. In that way your network will continue running during a power outage.

• Essential devices and appliances:

  • Install a UPS at each entertainment, gaming, and office hub. Configure all PCs, NAS drives and media servers to gracefully shut themselves down after three minutes of outage. Laptops, tablets, and phones have their own batteries and don’t need shutdown management.
  • Install an SPD power strip at each media center, gaming, office, and power tool hub (may not be necessary if a UPS is installed).
  • Install smaller power strips in office cubicles, bedrooms etc.
  • Install HDMI SPDs on TVs, monitors, AVs, media server and projector.

• Hubs, IoT devices, Speakers, LED circuits and Security Cameras.

Obviously, this is just a rough guide, but it should give you some idea of how to plan your home and business surge protection. The key is to audit every space and think through what the impact and cost is if you lost that appliance or device. Remember to keep spares for easy replacement.

Additional information:

• 1 - Overview
• 2 - Power surges and grounding
• 3 - The 3 types of surge protection
• 4 - SPD's and their usage
• 5 - Example action plan
• 6 - Glossary of terms

Download our free Surge Protection PDF.