If surges were being created inside a home, then a 'whole house'
protector makes those transients irrelevant. But if household
appliances are creating surges, then you are trooping daily to the
hardware store to replace smoke detectors, dimmer switches, clock
radios, dishwasher, etc. Obviously those 'inside the house' transients
are myths. Myths also promoted to sell ineffective, overpriced,
undersized, and overhyped plug-in protectors.

A protector is only as effective as its earth ground. So many
reasons why plug-in protectors will not be effective only starting with
earth ground is too far away from a wall receptacle. But then you
don't even have safety grounds. Just another reason why plug-in
protectors would be useless AND even contribute to damage of the
adjacent appliance.

Any protection that works at the appliance is already inside that
appliance. Protection that can be overwhelmed if you don't properly
earth transients at utility service entrance. Not just a 'whole house'
protector. We arrive at the final and most critical point. Even a
'whole house' protectors will only be as effective as its earth ground.
For example, if a connection to earth is a water pipe some thirty feet
(electrically) distant, then the 'whole house' protector has been
compromised. If all incoming utilities don't connect their protectors
'less than 10 feet' to that same earth ground, then again, protection
has been compromised. (Yes, even the telco installs a 'whole house'
protector on your incoming phone line - for free).

What does a plug-in protector manufacturer not discuss to sell
ineffective products? Earth ground. Even sharp bends, splices in that
grounding wire, or that earthing wire bundled with other wires will
compromise protection.

Start with THE most critical component of every protection system:
earth ground. An industry benchmark is Polyphaser. Polyphaser app
notes don't discuss their protectors. Polyphaser discusses THE most
critical 'system' component: earthing -
http://www.polyphaser.com/ppc_ptd_home.aspx

Your protection system starts with earthing. 'Whole house'
protectors are simply a good connection to earth. Effective
protectors have responsible manufacturer names such as GE, Square D,
Siemens, Intermatic, Leviton, Cutler-Hammer, and Polyphaser. Notice
the list specifically does not likst APC, Belkin, or Tripplite whose
products don't even have a dedicated earth ground.

Protection is about earthing which is why your earthing connection
must both meet and exceed post 1990 earthing codes. Start with
earthing to enhnance your electronic protection. The protector is only
as effective as its earth ground.

wrote:
My questions are at the bottom. First, some background:

I just bought a house with mostly ungrounded outlets. The outlet
boxes are not grounded either. My goal is simply to be able to
safely plug three-prong devices into outlets in every room without
spending an arm and a leg grounding outlets, some of which are
over a slab.

After some research, I've decided to replace the first outlet on every
circuit with a GFCI outlet (leaving it ungrounded). I'll then replace
every downstream outlet with a three-prong outlet (leaving them
all ungrounded) and label them per code. A local electrician tells
me this is all code complaint.

Then I'll have a whole-house surge protector installed. My thinking is
that the surge protector will protect my ungrounded electronics from
the more destructive surges while the GFCIs will keep faulty devices
from electrocuting anyone.

I know this still leaves electronics vulnerable to surges originating
inside the home, but I'm willing to risk it unless someone has a
pointer to examples of electronic devices being damaged by this
sort of surge.

So my questions:

1) What am I missing? Does this all sound reasonable?
2) My kitchen has two GFCI outlets (each side of sink) on the
same circuit. Can I pilfer one and use it elsewhere in the house
or will this be a code violation?
3) I have two bathrooms on the same circuit, each with one outlet
and both outlets have GFCIs. The first outlet in this circuit is in a
bedroom across the hall. Can I move one GFCI to the bedroom and
replace the other with a regular 3-prong outlet?