I have the power!

Jstas

OK, the surge suppressor is in!

I went over to the supplier to get the parts 'cause the electrician was tied up and I was gonna pass the place on my way home. When I got there, I was talking to the guy and told him what I was there for. He said "Oh, yeah! Hold on, got it right over here!"

He pulls out this box that is about 6 inches by 2 inches by 2 inches. I looked at it with a quizzical look on my face and he says "What's wrong?" I said "I thought it'd be bigger. I never heard of "Square-D" before either.

Then he pulled out the Leviton one I posted earlier and said "You were expecting a brick like this?" I said "Yeah, kinda. That Panamax one is pretty big too, isn't it?" He says "Nope!" and pulls out a Panamax and it honestly wasn't much bigger. Then he says "I'll give you the Panny or the Leviton if you want but Bill ordered this one for you and honestly, it's the best unit on the market for residential." I said "But who's Square-D?" He said "Oh, that, yeah, a few years ago Schneider Electric renamed a bunch of their entry level and residential stuff "Square-D" because they were going to sell it in Home Depot and stores like that. But it never took off because it wasn't "idiot proof" and you could easily break something trying to put one of these in yourself. Schneider has been around for a looooong time and they make some of the best stuff on the market. This one, compared to the other ones, is a better, more responsive design. This has a metal oxide varistor instead of the gas tube arrestors. That's why it's so small but it's also faster and more efficient. I have yet to see one of these fail."

So I got that one. $85 plus a dual pole breaker and 20 minutes it was installed.

Here's some info:

http://surgelogic.com/utilities/sdsa1175-series-001-secondary-surge-arrester/

Here's what it looks like:



It's installed on the side of the service panel box and you wouldn't see it if you weren't looking for it. It's in such an out of the way spot that I gotta get the real camera out of the box it's packed in to take a shot 'cause the cellphone camera doesn't show it.

But yeah, $110 installed. Not bad.