Type 2 surge protective devices at the panel — one install that protects everything downstream.
A whole-home surge protector is a Type 2 surge protective device installed at your service panel, on the load side of the main disconnect. It sits there doing nothing until voltage on the incoming service spikes past what your wiring and appliances are built for, then diverts that energy to ground before it reaches your branch circuits. One device, wired into one panel, covers everything downstream of it.
The reason this went from optional to standard is what is now plugged into a house. A surge used to cost you a television. Today the expensive things on a residential service are electronic: a heat pump's inverter board, an EV charger, a solar inverter, a battery system, mini-split control boards, well pump controls, and the smart devices that have quietly replaced every mechanical switch in the house. In this county the surges mostly are not lightning. They are the grid — a line reclosing after a tree-contact fault in the San Lorenzo Valley, restoration after a PSPS shutoff, routine utility switching, and the transients your own large motors throw back onto the service every time they cycle.
This page is for a panel that is staying. Your existing panel is sound, the service is not being replaced, and you want the protection retrofitted into the equipment you already have. That is a defined, self-contained job: one device, one dedicated breaker, one panel, and a grounding path checked before anything goes in. If the panel itself turns out to be the problem, a surge device is the wrong place to put the money, and we will say so and point you at the 200A panel upgrade instead. Most shops will not send a truck out for a job this small on an older home. We will.
Worth being straight about what this does not do. A Type 2 device at the panel handles transients arriving on the service and the ones your own equipment generates. It is not lightning protection — a direct strike is a different problem with a different answer. It does not protect what comes in on coax, ethernet, or a satellite line, which need their own protection at their own entry points. It does not cover a detached shop or ADU running off its own subpanel unless that panel gets its own device. And surge protective devices are consumable: they absorb energy over their life and eventually stop protecting, usually with no symptom other than the status indicator changing. Anyone telling you one box makes a house immune to surges is overselling it.
Tell us your panel brand and roughly how old the panel is, or send a photo of the label and the inside of the door. That is usually enough for us to know whether a device will land cleanly or whether there is a compatibility problem to solve first.
Before anything is installed, the tech confirms there is usable space, that a compatible breaker is available for your panel brand, and that grounding and bonding are sound. If the panel is a Federal Pacific, a Zinsco, or otherwise at end of life, we will tell you a surge device is the wrong place to spend the money.
Panel de-energized, device mounted, dedicated breaker landed, leads kept short and routed cleanly, connections torqued to spec, cover back on and power restored.
We show you the status indicator and what a failed device looks like, update the breaker directory, register the 20-year workmanship warranty, and leave you the device documentation.
This is one of the few things we do where the scope really is small and predictable, so most of the price variation is not in the device — it is in what your panel makes us do to get it in. A modern panel with an open pair of spaces and a readily available breaker is a straightforward job. A full panel with nothing free, an obsolete brand where a listed breaker is hard to source, or grounding that has to be corrected first are all genuinely different jobs. We would rather find that out at the panel than promise you a number over the phone and revise it on the doorstep. And if the panel turns out to be at end of life, we will say so and quote the service upgrade instead, because a surge device on a failing panel is money in the wrong place.
“Thank you to the Sunrise Electrical Contracting team for updating the new main electrical system on my mom's home after the storm damaged the power lines and home equipment this winter… They replaced Main Service Upgrade Overhead, and added a Sub-Panel Install/Replacement Outdoors… the team of Branden, Jimmy, Ian, and Tylor worked long hours during the storm for a few days to get us up and running again before the next storm arrived.”
Pulled from what we actually hear on quotes and on-site. If yours isn't here, ask us — we'll answer in plain English.
We'd rather you get the right outcome than the Sunrise outcome. Some of this points away from us on purpose.
Look for a CSLB-licensed C-10 contractor near you and verify the licence at cslb.ca.gov. On a job this small the questions that matter are specific: does the device go on a dedicated breaker, do they keep the leads short, and do they check grounding before installing. Those three answers tell you most of what you need to know.
Browse our field guidesSurge protection only makes sense in the context of the panel it is going into, and the panel is usually the more important question. Our panel guides are free to read, no email wall.
Read the panel guidesA free whole-home inspection gives you a written read on the panel's condition and whether a surge device is the right next thing to spend on. You keep the report either way.
Schedule a free inspectionFrom Davenport to Pajaro Dunes, San Lorenzo Valley to Pleasure Point. Same crew, same warranty, same pricing.
One device at the panel, everything downstream covered, and a 20-year guarantee on the work. If your panel turns out to need something else first, we'll tell you before anything goes in.