An email I received from the Detroit Edison (DTE) Energy Company today. The text reads:
How it works:
Installation*: DTE will install the device on your electric meter in less than 30 minutes. No need to schedule an appointment or be at home. Your home is protected as soon as the device is installed by our technicians.
Protection and Warranties: The warranty coverage provides $5,000 per event for appliances and $1,000 per event for electronics to repair or replace your household items in the event the device fails to protect against damaging surges.
Stay Connected: Your surge device comes with a FREE 20-foot power cable. In the event of a power outage, you can connect your generator to the surge device with the power cable to power your home up to the generator’s capacity. Easy access for your generator – you won’t have to run extension cords from your generator into your home.
Learn more | Enroll now
*There’s a one-time installation fee for a surge protection plus device of $49.99, which is a limited time offer and will expire on December 31, 2024. After the expiration date, the installation fee will return to its normal price of $99.99. To access the Surge Protection Plus program’s Terms and Conditions, visit dteenergy.com/sppterms.
and of course that URL is hyperlinked with a big long tracking string on the end of it so I won’t be sharing it
What’s crazy is you can get a whole home surge protector in your panel for like $130 plus the cost of a breaker for your panel (~$10-20) if you don’t have an empty one of high amperage (been awhile since I installed mine but I think it needs a 50a breaker). they’re pretty simple to install but if you’re not extremely comfortable working with electricity you absolutely should get an electrician to do it and not fuck around inside your panel though. If your home is relatively new you also potentially already have this as iirc they added this to building codes in many locales in recent years
Edit: I’m realizing the monthly fee is for generator monitoring. I have a generac generator and they charge similar fees if you use their crazy overpriced hardware but the genmon project on GitHub uses a raspberry pi and some cheap cables to achieve much more robust monitoring without the need for a subscription if you have a Honeywell or generac generator. Fuck fees.
But that’s actually a decent price for a whole home surge protector + install, which makes me assume it’s probably a cheaper one. Mines one of the nicer spec’d models bc I use a decent amount of power, there are def cheaper options, plus I’m sure they get them much cheaper buying in bulk