A few years ago my mum and dads house and part of their estate lost their neutral due to an underground fault. Lots of their electronics got fried. The electricity company paid for all of the repairs so alls good. However shortly after she realised that she had a plug in surge protector protecting her PC etc yet still everything was damaged. She contacted the supplier and they said , oh very sorry you must have a faulty one and could she send it back and they would replace it. So was she unlucky or are they useless. We actually never know if they work or not unless they are triggered which is rare i would think or fail.
So they same thought ( it happens occasionally) has occurred to me re the surge protection we are charging people to install in their new consumer units. Who is liable if they fail? How long are they guaranteed for? Should they be replaced every few years? how do we know if they actually do anything? I am not aware of a way of actually testing them .
Gary
