Charlie:
Welcome to Comfort on Porpoise, sponsored by Dolphin Cooling and Heating who have been providing 24/7 Comfort on Porpoise since 1998.
Charlie:
Hey there, this is Charlie McDermott, producer of comfort on purpose, and of course, I have Lauren here. Lauren, how are you doing?
Lauren:
Good. How are you today, Charlie?
Charlie:
I’m doing great and I asked to jump in here because I heard about what you guys were doing with surge protectors and, Lauren, I gotta tell you a few things. One, I learned something new every day in Florida. As you know, we’re down here for about five years now and, my goodness, number one, we live right on the bay and, and we’re in Fort Myers Beach and we have like this 280-degree view of Naples and Estero. It’s like watching the fireworks six months out of the year during the rainy season. Right?
Lauren:
Yes.
Charlie:
It’s crazy out there. I don’t want to pick on Florida power because I got to tell you, the energy costs Pennsylvania versus here, I almost fell off my chair because the rates are so great versus Pennsylvania. But I understand there’s some funky things that might go on when power goes out and comes back on and all that. So anyway, long story short, I was hoping you could just share the importance of a surge protector. Because I gotta raise my hand, I learned the hard way that there is such a thing that can help save your listeners a lot of money and pain and all that. So tell us about the surge protector.
Lauren:
The surge protector is a small electrical component, looks like a little box, and we place them on the outdoor unit, the condensing unit. And it does exactly what it sounds like. If you think of inside your home, people will buy those strips for plugs and those are actually a surge protector, right? So they protect your electronics in case there’s a power surge, blackout, brownout, nearby lightning strike travels through the ground. It won’t take out your TV, your computer, whatever happens to be plugged in. So it’s the exact same concept. It just applies to the air conditioner.
So one of the things we hear a lot is, “I’ve had a system for 20 years. Why do I need this now?” Well, the difference between systems made 20 even 15 years ago, the newer systems have more electrical components in them. So what happens is, let’s say there is a nearby lightning strike. Now I’m not going to say direct lightning strike, that’s a complete act of God. But something nearby travels through the ground, or there’s a power surge that comes through the house. That little box, the little surge protector, is gonna do exactly what it says. That surge of power is going to be trapped by that box. So the box will get zapped, protecting all of the electrical components within your condensing unit.
Now, a lot of times it’s like, okay, well, what’s the benefit? Well, what people may not realize is if there are surges of power like that, that take out electrical components within the condensing system, depending on how severe it is, the repair prices can actually be quite costly. Several hundreds to sometimes thousands of dollars, depending on which components are taken out from that power surge.
The device we use, they’re not all created equal. The one that we specifically install is called a linebacker. That’s the brand of surge protector, and it is designed to take multiple strikes or surges of power. So it’s not a one-and-done thing. And the whole goal there is to give residents peace of mind. Like you said, we live in Florida, in Southwest Florida at that, and six months out of the year it’s thunderstorm season, we have hurricane season approaching. When is that? Geez, June 1st, I think.
Charlie:
Yes, we’re taking next year off, I understand. We’re just going to skip this hurricane season.
Lauren:
That would be nice, right? We’re just gonna jump over it entirely. But down here it’s very common to have lightning strikes, power surges, blackouts, brownouts, things like that happen. They’re accessory items, so they’re not integral for the AC to function properly, but they are a protective device to keep your AC functioning properly and avoid potential costly repairs.
Charlie:
So even if it’s a non-lightening event, power goes out, there’s a chance that when the juice comes back on there could be a problem.
Lauren:
Yes, there could be a surge or a spike in the electricity for whatever reason happens to come through. Not that that happens all the time, but it certainly can happen and it could potentially damage the AC system. This little box, it helps, and right now we’re trying to help customers with hurricane season preparedness. What types of things can they do? We’re running a promo on our surge protectors. If people call in and get this set up from April 15th to April 30th, we’re offering a 15% discount on this service to have this little box that can save you a lot of money installing.
Charlie:
I love it, I love how it self-sacrifices itself. It throws itself in front of the electricity.
Lauren:
That is exactly what it does. That’s a perfect way to explain it. It’s exactly what it does. It sacrifices itself to save your AC. Which, as you know, down here, if you’re without AC, especially in the summer, that’s painful. I mean, that really is an emergency. It gets very hot. It gets very uncomfortable inside the residence. So nobody wants that.
Charlie:
Yes. It’s funny, every time the power goes out, and it’s not always because of electricity, every now and then you think it’s an explosion in the neighborhood and it just a transformer blows for whatever reason. Instantly the power goes out and then, not only are you holding your breath and crossing your fingers that comes on soon, but everything comes back on. Because we’ve had, and this was in Pennsylvania, TVs, big screen TV, they don’t live through it for, for whatever reason.
Lauren:
It happens.
Charlie:
Yes. Well, this is great. This is good stuff. And, and I know that you’re helping a lot of folks who had no idea. And that’s the worst thing. I’m all about getting the information out there and at least you know. The worst case is, something like this happens and you expend thousands of dollars to fix something and you find out later this little Linebacker gizmo could have protected you. So, terrific, you’re getting it out there and helping them with a real nice promo price.
Lauren:
Yes. It’s important, especially nowadays, that our listeners know and feel knowledgeable. And this is just one more little bit of information. It’s something I learned myself. If you had asked me six years ago, I would have had no idea. Like you, I was not originally from Florida, I’m from New Hampshire. So we don’t really have hurricane season and we don’t have these crazy thunderstorms that roll through almost daily. So it was a learned thing for me too and I figured if it was good for me to know it, it’s good for other people to know what their options are as well.
Charlie:
Well, terrific. Well Lauren, hey, thanks for having me on the show, number one, and I’m going to look forward to being in the background in the next show.
Lauren:
Sounds good. Well, thank you so much, Charlie, for letting me chat with you about surge protectors today and share it with our listeners.
Charlie:
Absolutely. You take care. You too. Thanks.
Charlie:
Thanks for listening to Comfort on Porpoise to learn more about our sponsor Dolphin Cooling and Heating visit www.dolphincooling.com or call 239-596-9044. That’s 239-596-9044.