We had an electrician out today to install a whole house electrical surge protection system. That sounds like a really complex thing when I say it like that. What it turns out to be though is that two breakers in your breaker box (electrical panel) are moved (they need the top slots) and replaced with two different beasts that are similar but they don’t have a switch but instead just a light. The light is green if all is good and it’s not green if a surge has blown out the surge protection system. It needs two because an electrical service in the United States is 120v but is typically provided as 240v and then split into two phases so each of the two special breakers covers each side of the phase for the panel (I’m pretty sure I got the language right though I’m not an electrician nor do I play one on TV!).
As a bonus, I also had two outlets (on separate circuits) installed (one for a fridge and one for my network hub equipment). These wound up be harder to do than the surge protection – go figure!.
You forgot to mention the extra special, at no additional cost to you, bonus from this morning…a hole in our family room wall that makes me think there is a huge spider up there looking down at me whenever I walk by!!!