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Whole-House Surge Protection
A battery and a generator solve different halves of the same problem. Missouri storm season decides this one. A generator earns its cost in the week the neighborhood is dark.
Whole-House Surge Protection in O’Fallon and across St. Charles, St. Louis, Lincoln and Warren counties.
No dispatcher and no commissioned salesman. Seventeen years in the trade, four of them on his own.
5.0 from 94 Google reviews · BBB A+ since 2022
What this work actually involves
Loads are picked deliberately: what has to run, what can wait, and what the generator can actually carry.
First the reading, then the explanation, then the repair scoped to what was actually found. If that turns out smaller than the job you called about, that is what you are charged for.
Work needing a permit gets one and work needing an inspection is left ready for it. There is no handoff between whoever quotes and whoever fixes, because they are the same person.
When people call about this
- A sump pump and a finished basement
- Portable generator cords through a window
- A home office that cannot go dark
- Electronics lost to a storm
Why people choose Clint for it
One person does the diagnosis and the repair, so nothing is lost between a salesman and a technician, and nobody is paid to sell past the finding.
Seventeen years in the trade, four of them running his own shop, 5.0 from 94 Google reviews, and an A+ BBB accreditation held since 2022.
Where this is done
Thirty towns across five jurisdictions, worked out of O’Fallon. The housing stock and the inspection process both change as you move across them.
See the full service area, or the rest of our backup power work.
Deciding what stays on
The design work in backup power is choosing loads. A furnace blower, a well pump, a sump pump, the refrigerator and a few lighting circuits keep a house functioning through an outage and need far less generator than running everything.
Whole-house standby is available and costs accordingly. Picking loads deliberately is usually the difference between a system that gets installed and one that stays a quote.
Writing the list before pricing the system
Backup cost is decided almost entirely by the list of what has to keep running. Furnace blower, refrigerator, well or sump pump, a few circuits of light: written down honestly, that list is far smaller and cheaper than running everything.
The list comes first, the size comes from the list, and the quote comes from the size. Done the other way round you buy a system sized to a brochure.
Where surge protection belongs
Most damaging surges are not lightning. They come from the utility side and from large motors inside the house cycling off, which is why a whole-house device at the panel catches more events than a strip at the television.
The panel device handles the big transients, and point-of-use protection at expensive electronics handles what gets past it. Layered that way it works; a strip alone does not, and a panel device alone leaves sensitive equipment exposed.
Who actually does the work
Clint Ehman does the diagnosis and the repair himself. There is no salesman writing a scope for a technician to execute, and nobody paid on what the visit totals.
Seventeen years in the trade, four of them running his own shop out of O’Fallon, licensed, bonded and insured with workers compensation coverage, 5.0 from 94 Google reviews, and A+ BBB accreditation held since 2022.
What makes this harder in older housing stock
Across this metro the recurring complications are predictable: no equipment ground, aluminum branch wiring from the mid-seventies, knob-and-tube buried in blown-in insulation, panels that have been added to several times, and splices in places the code has not allowed for decades.
Those turn a simple job into a decision about scope. The decision gets put to you with the reading behind it rather than made quietly and billed.
“Clint came out installed me a large 200 amp panel put some new dedicated lines in my basement and garage he did great clean work all inspections passed he was thorough and knowledgeable. I will have him back out again.”
Jason Holtzman · Google review
How the visit goes
- The call
What you need to keep running and how often the power goes out where you are.
- The measurement
The loads you named, added up honestly, and the panel’s capacity to feed a transfer switch or interlock.
- The finding
A size and a configuration, with the cost difference between keeping the essentials on and running the whole house made plain.
- The work
Unit sited, circuit run, transfer switch or interlock installed so back-feeding is impossible, inspected, then a walkthrough of starting and transferring with you present.
What the job includes
- Load selection: what has to run, what can wait
- Generator or inlet sized to the chosen loads
- Transfer switch or interlock so back-feeding is impossible
- Pad or mounting, and the circuit to it
- Permit and inspection where required
- A walkthrough of starting and transferring, in person
What it does not
- Gas piping, which is the plumber’s trade
- Concrete pads beyond a prefabricated base
- Generator servicing contracts
Anything outside electrical, you will be told who to call rather than sold it. See finished work, or say what the house is doing.
Related backup power work
Whole-House Surge Protection across the metro
Five jurisdictions, five different sets of conditions. What an inspector looks at first differs by address here, which shapes the job as much as the house does.
Lincoln County
Outbuildings count as separate structures in code terms: a disconnect at the building, a grounding electrode there, and a feeder sized for the distance.
Warren County
It is the far end of a roughly fifty mile radius, so visits get grouped rather than squeezed in. That affects the date, not the price.
St. Charles County
St. Charles County is mostly 1990s and 2000s subdivisions. The wiring is modern and the services were sized before anyone owned an electric car or finished a basement, so capacity is the usual constraint rather than condition.
Thirty towns across five jurisdictions, all on the service areas page.
Questions worth asking first.
Can I use a generator cord into a dryer outlet?
No. That back-feeds the utility and endangers the crews working your line. A transfer switch or a listed interlock is what makes that physically impossible.
Battery or generator?
A battery is silent and instant for a limited number of hours; a generator runs as long as it has fuel. How long your power usually stays out decides it.
What size generator do I need?
It depends on what has to keep running. A well pump, a sump pump and a furnace need very different capacity from a whole house, and picking the loads deliberately keeps the cost sensible.
Are you licensed and insured?
Licensed, bonded and insured, with workers compensation coverage, and accredited A+ with the BBB since 2022.
Where do you work?
Out of O’Fallon across St. Charles County, St. Louis County, St. Louis City, and Lincoln and Warren counties, roughly a fifty mile radius.
Describe the symptom, not the diagnosis.
That is usually enough to say what the visit involves before anyone is booked. Whole-House Surge Protection in O’Fallon and across the metro.
Mon-Thu 8-5 · Fri 8-4 · Sat 10-3. Emergencies outside that are still worth the call, or message instead.