[Novalug] whole-house surge protectors

[Nino R. Pereira]

Jon,

I have absolutely no experience with whole-house surge protectors,
but for very basic electrical engineering principles I doubt that
using them makes a lot of sense.

The reason is this: much electrical equipment doesn't need to be
protected, and those that take the most power are the best able
to withstand fluctuations, power outages, and the like. What happens
to your oven (if it's on) when a voltage spike hits? it goes from
the equivalent of heating to (say) 400 F to (say) 500 F. Or, when you
are vacuuming and a spike hits: the motor may run a little faster
than it otherwise would. And, you water heater would be a milli-second
earlier in replenishing the hot water after a shower.

With lamps it's a little different. I can imagine that incandescent
bulbs will go out a little quicker when it's been hit with voltage spikes,
but then again, turning them on is already a large hit (because their
resistance when cold is about 1/10 of their resistance hot). For 
fluorescents
I don't know, and LEDs should be quite impervious.

So, I'd choose to protect computers by putting them on a UPS, and wouldn't
worry about much else.

HTH,

Nino