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Many people's homes are littered with various appliances. These appliances often prove crucial for day-to-day activities, and can be expensive to replace if damaged or destroyed. For this reason, you'll want to learn how to protect household appliances from electrical disturbances. The 2 main types of disturbances that you can protect against are voltage surges and power outages.

1. Use surge protecting power strips in your home. 

The quickest and least expensive solution for protecting appliances is plugging them into a power strip with a built-in surge protector. These power strips are usually equipped with a fuse that is designed to fail in the event of a voltage spike, cutting off power to your appliances and protecting them.

2. Install a whole-house surge protector in your electrical panel.

A more thorough and robust solution than using power strips is to install a snap-in surge protector directly into your electrical panel. A single protector of this type offers surge protection for your whole home, and can be installed easily if you are comfortable working in your electrical panel.

3. Contact your electricity provider about meter-mounted surge protection. 

The most robust solution of all is to mount a surge protector along your incoming electrical line, just before your meter. This type of work must be done by a certified electrician and in accordance with your local utility provider's restrictions.

4. Install GFCI outlets throughout your home. 

In many countries, GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlets are required in new kitchens and bathrooms; they are the electrical outlets with red and black buttons labeled "Test" and "Reset." These outlets monitor the electricity flowing into and out of each socket and shut off the flow if the difference exceeds a certain amount.

5. Protect appliances from power outages using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).