I never said that exactly. Some 'quoted' claims are not what I said. With so many others posting nasty and outright lies, I must pick which of some myths to expose. Keep the replies short and at the layman level. Much of your post contained informed but not always complete facts.

The NIST, like all other professional organizations, says effective protection is not the protector. Where must energy dissipate to have no damage? In earth. Why can homes suffer direct strikes without anyone even knowing it happened? A proven solution typically costs about $1 per protected appliance. More responsible manufacturers provide a solution that any informed homeowner can install. Only repeating what was posted so many times.

I never said the 'whole house' protector provides perfect protection. I said no protector does the protection. Where do hundreds of thousands of joules dissipate? I never said a protector absorbs near zero energy. But I did say those 'profit center' protectors, described by iform (ie Belkin and Monster), must absorb the entire surge and can only absorb near zero energy. No problem. They are not intended for protection from typicallly destructive surges. May even be a potential house fire; especially if a 'whole house' protector is not earthed. At what point do others become concerned as to ask about house fires created by ineffective protectors?

Two basic requirements for protection. First says how protection works during each surge. That is mostly about what absorbs energy AND how energy is connected. Concepts include impedance and something not discussed because nobody (apparently) wants to learn about single point ground.

Second says system life expectancy. Since lightning is typically 20,000 amps, then a minimal protector starts at about 50,000 amps (residential). If a protector has failed (ie those industrial protectors), then the protector might have been undersized when installed. A facility learns from their mistake and eliminates the problem. Those protectors may have been victim of a serious 'protection system' defect elsewhere.

That problem is not necessarily the protector. But any failed protector suggests failure directly traceable to a human mistake.

One failure reason could be a defective 'primary' protection system. Mentioned repeatedly hoping that anyone here would want to learn. What followed were insults and nasty replies rather than even one question of 'low impedance', single point earth ground, essential protector parameters, or even "what is the primary protection system?"

bcf1963 demonstrated no grasp of 'secondary protection'. For some reason (probably word association), he speculated that protectors inside a building are 'secondary protection'. Another example of "knowing" without first learning this stuff. Well, we also made some of those mistakes. And then learned from our mistakes. Learned rather than obstinately denying well proven science and numbers.

Yes, a protector needs fusing because that catastrophic damage must never happen. A grossly undersized protector must disconnect from a surge as fast as possible. Leaves an appliance connected to that surge. But sometimes that fuse does not disconnect fast enough. Then an inferior protector may create a house fire. Just another reason why protectors are best located away from appliances, not on a rug, not behind furniture, and not in any potential fire locations. Just another reason why protectors are located at the service entrance.

amirm, I never said better company integrity means a better protector. But I did indicate companies with inferior integrity sell grossly undersized protectors that also do not claim to protect from destructive surges. Defined were companies who provide the supieror and minimally sufficient solutions. A benchmark for protection for generations is Polyphaser. A benchmark among protectors with obscene profit margins is Monster.

Did you know speaker wire has polarity? Monster sold speaker wire marked for which end connects to an amp and which end must connect to speakers. Using logic some posted here, many could even hear the difference if speaker wires were reversed. So Monster sold that $7 speaker wire for $70. Monster knows the naive will associate price with quality. Their wire costs more money? Therefore it must be better? Monster also understands many will get emotional and nasty rather than admit to being deceived. That also increases profits.

Price does not define quality. Best protection solutions also cost tens or 100 times less money. That does not say all protectors from Siemens, Intermatic, Polyphaser, etc will be sufficient. That only says one has little reason to expect a profit center from Belkin, Panamax, Monster, etc to provide effective protection.

I did not say nor even imply effective devices dissipate zero energy. I did say protection is always about where hundreds of thousands of joules dissipate. iform kindly demonstrated ineffective protectors (ie Belkin, Monster) that only claim to absorb near zero energy. That are undersized. Rather than learn from his numbers, he did not understand the numbers. Then became angry. Unfortunate.

amirm - correctly defined was UL testing. UL 1449 tests a protector that might even fail during some tests. UL does not care. UL only cares that a protector does not create a fire threat during THEIR tests. Even if the protector fails in some test - no problem. As long as the protector does not threaten human life.

Unfortunately many, manipulated by advertising, assume a UL listing means a protector does effective protection. Or that ANSI/IEEE C62.xx defines protection. Neither do. But advertising successfully implies it anyway. Their target audience are consumers easily manipulated by advertsing.

I never said 'whole house' protection is perfect. Again, it is maybe "99.5% to 99.9% protection". Which is superior to the maybe 0.2% protection provided by a Belkin, Panamax, Monster, etc. Any homeowner that does not have a 'whole house' protector should also worry about house fires created by those inferior products. Since Monster, et al protectors need protection only provided by earthing a 'whole house' protector.

Your pictures demonstrate human created failures. One possible reason: missing or compromised 'primary protection' system. But no reason to discuss that. Most here cannot even get past the advertising myths.

For example, bcf1963 asked, ""What do you need if anything in addition to a whole house home surge unit?" A list was provided. He ignored it or just does not get it. Then asked the same question again. bcf1963: code clearly does not define "low impedance". Code says nothing about low impedance. Is that clear enough? Code discussed concepts defined by resistance - not impedance. A low resistance connection can also be an excessively high impedance connection. You should have understood that by now. But again, it would have been discussed if bcf1963, et al was not assuming he knew this stuff.

bcf1963 - what you are posting is not 'secondary' protection. But again, the same point. You keep assuming what you do not know. As demonstrated repeatedly, protection inside a building is, essentially, near zero protection. Protection only from non-destructive transients. And definitely is not 'secondary protection'. Had you wanted to learn, I would say more. No reason to. You will simply post another nasty denial.

Others are invited to ask with the intent of learning from one who did this as an engineer even decades ago. Direct lightning strikes without damage - routine. Victim of advertising and hearsay? Quickly identified by posts without facts and numbers.