Chelco Surge Protector

In 2003, we had more than $5K in damage to the electronics in our home from one of those nasty off-the-Gulf lightning storms. We went with the Chelco service because we figure it reduces the probability of having to go through all of that all over again, even though it's not perfect and we still have to have surge guards on vulnerable/expensive electronics.

I don't pretend to understand magic (electricity). But from what I've read, the small indoor surge protectors do very little to protect equipment. It's the insurance behind them that matters. I think most makers say if you don't register them then you have no claim. And who knows if they would ever pay off anyway.

Ask Chelco what recourse you have if your equipment is damaged.

I have pretty heavy duty ones for our computers.

Is 6.95/month just throwing money away?

I always thought so. We had a lot of lightning problems at the house until we had a ground field, and series of ground rods put in some twenty years ago. Now I just use good ground surge strips that cost around $15 and they seem to do it for me. I use UPSs on the computers that I do not want to lose data on, those that are syncing to others in town and my laptops I do not even use that and have not had any issues in years.

Key seems to be making sure your house has a single ground, make sure that the power company, cable company, and telephone, are all grounding at the same place or very close to each other.