dweste,

Although many people have given you good information, none of them have answered your question. When power has been out and comes back on, all of your appliances etc. are trying to start -- and so are everyone else's. The first problem here is not truly a surge, but a lowering of the line voltage, just when your items need a higher than normal current. This can (particularly in the case of motors (AC, fridg.) cause damage to the motors themselves. Worse on some than others. After that you can have a series of spikes (surges) as other equipment gets started and quits taking current and the voltage jumps up for a moment. The only way to solve this on a whole house basis is to take the house offline until the power stabilizes. There are units to do this, but sometimes the least expensive (and useful later) is an automatic generator cut away. It would normally cut the line power and go to the generator until line power is back on and stabilized. Most of them will do the same thing without the generator, and you can add the genny later for a super setup.

Respectfully,

Jerry